Three Worlds of Paradise
by crapapple
Summary: Yu Yu Hakusho/Kingdom Hearts crossover. The Key laughs as they fade. It knows that they can feel. But it doesn't know that they will be allowed a second chance. For when an innocent is slaughtered, death itself may reverse. Demyx Zexion Marluxia
1. A Nobody's Joy

_The three main characters of this little tale will be Demyx, Zexion, and Marluxia. Each will be given their own Point of View. A total of seven Organization members will actually appear in the story, while the other six will only be mentioned and/or appear in flashbacks. If you wish for any of these six to actually make a debut, please tell me in a review or PM. _

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all._

…

_Chapter One_

_A Nobody's Joy_

Demyx PoV

I was quietly walking in a beautiful, snow covered forest. I was having trouble _keeping_ quiet though. I mean, I couldn't contain my excitement. We were _finally_ in the human world! I'd been dying to come here ever since I learned about this new place we'd arrived at.

For some strange reason, Roxas, Axel, and I, had woken up in a very bizarre place. It was filled with hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of dark creatures. They weren't Heartless (they were much scarier), and they weren't Nobodies like us. They were just demons that never were human and never will be.

We had learned as we made our way through this strange land, (took awhile since Roxas and Axel kept on killing the demons) that we were in a world known as the Demon World(or Makai). We found out that this Demon World was one of three, large, whole worlds, all of them connected. The world next to Demon World was the Human World (or Ningenkai), and after that was Spirit World (or Reikai).

We wanted to get to Spirit World and see a man named "Koenma". He was practically the top dog of these three worlds, and we wanted to see if we could stay here. It might sound kind of dumb, especially since we used to be three villains. But we had all decided we wanted to live our lives peacefully, (well _I _did anyway) without some little _hero_ trying to take us out.

"It's so beautiful here!" I exclaimed, not able to contain myself any longer.

"It's damn cold, and I hate the snow!" Axel yelled from behind me. His exclamation was followed by a long round of sneezing.

I never would've thought we could get sick, but Axel had proved me wrong. _Funny that the fire manipulator was always the first to go._

I turned to face my two friends. _They _both still had their hoods up and looked like jet black ghosts amongst a stunningly white heaven. I had taken my hood off because I loved the feel of the cool air blowing through my dark blonde hair. I knew without a doubt, that my hazel eyes where most likely shining with joy, as usual. I mean snow _is_ frozen water, _right_? Since water is my element I couldn't help but be happier about the situation then my friends.

I laughed and cheered out, "Come on guys don't be such scrooges!!" I didn't know if it was Christmas here or not, but it certainly was the right weather.

"We need to find food and shelter." Roxas said in a monotone. "If we don't get some help for Axel he'll just get worse. _We_ could even get sick_ too_." Near the end I heard slight irritation in his voice, and I could tell he was getting annoyed. It was a scary sight when Roxas was angry.

I was about to apologize for being obnoxious, when I felt a presence nearby. I saw my two friends pull off their hoods, and get into fighting stances (though Axel looked more like a drunk in his). I turned around, a little scared, being that I was not ready to face this new foe. We heard rustling in the snow covered bushes ahead of us, and in response Roxas and Axel came to stand beside me. Roxas, being the most ambitious of us, already had his keyblades summoned and ready to kill.

"I'm so sorry if I startled you!" A very sweet and kind voice rang out. A lovely girl stepped out of the bushes, brushing the snow from her long teal hair. She was small, shorter than Roxas, and had large blood red eyes. She wore a lengthy robe that matched her hair in color. It was a very strange garment that had a thick dark blue belt around the middle.

Axel and I relaxed at the sight of her, but Roxas kept his fighting stance and cold stare. At least he had sent away his weapons.

"My name is…" She paused as if unsure. "…Yukina" She had her hands intertwined in front of her and was nervously fidgeting them.

At this Roxas completely relaxed. From the expression on his face, he had figured out that this insecure girl wasn't a threat.

"I was walking in the forest." She said, unexpectedly looking up at us. "I suddenly sensed three strange energies, and decided to follow them. They led me to you…" She whispered the last part, as if the courage she had built up to say the middle had abruptly died.

"Strange!" Roxas spat out the word bitterly, acting as if it was poison.

The girl, or Yukina I should say, looked really hurt and discouraged. I wanted to tell Roxas off for being mean to someone who was as cute and as sweet as she was. When I saw her big red eyes begin to fill with tears, I quickly intervened. "I'm so sorry about him!" I put my hand behind my head to show my shame. "He's just a cranky bastard, ya know?"

Roxas shot a death glare at me and crossed his arms disapprovingly. Much to my surprise the girl began to cry…or that's what I thought at first. I soon realized she was laughing at us. I was glad to see her joy, and her laugh was gentle and quite musical. She only laughed for short while and soon composed herself.

"I'm sorry." She apologized, her sheepish ways once again surfacing. "It's just, you guys remind me of some friends of mine." As she said this she looked up and gave us a warm smile.

Seeing her happy face made me smile too, and I decided to ask something I'd been wondering. "Do you live around here?"

Yukina looked ready to answer but was cut off by a loud sneeze from Axel, which was followed by many smaller ones.

"Oh my!" Yukina exclaimed. And then she was gone. _What the…?_

"Nice going, dumb…" Roxas began to say as we both turned to face Axel.

Yukina hadn't left. She was actually standing next to Axel.

"That doesn't sound good." Yukina stated as she put a hand to Axel's forehead.

Axel looked completely bewildered, most likely because this girl had not only started _caring _about him unexpectedly, but she was also _touching _him.

"He's burning up!" Yukina said with disapproval in her voice and on her face. The timid insecure girl had left and now a new, more assertive one, had taken her place. _I hope she's not completely crazy. _"We need to get him to the temple, where it's warm."

I saw a smirk appear on Roxas's face, and I soon found myself fighting laughter. Axel's face was priceless. Whether he was blushing from the fever, or from Yukina's touch, he looked like a total pervert. "Sounds good." I replied, trying to keep my smile away from my face but failed miserably.

"What is it?" Yukina asked, her unsure side reappearing.

Surprisingly Roxas was the one to answer. "Axel's a fire manipulator, so he's kind of burning up all the time."

Then I added in, "He isn't used to anyone being that nice to him either."

Of course this wasn't why we were so amused. We didn't want to her to know the real reason and sound like a bunch of perverts.

"Oh." Yukina whispered. She dropped her hand from Axel's forehead and let go of his shoulder. She intertwined her fingers again and looked at the ground. "I'm truly sorry. I couldn't help myself." She looked up at us. "I am a doctor. And…we still need to get him to the temple."

She was a doctor. _Who knew someone like her could be a doctor? _

"We should hurry." She said, her confident "doctor" side appearing again. Yukina grabbed Axel's gloved hand and began to lead him in the direction she had come from. She walked very quickly, and so Axel was stumbling behind her.

"Women..." Roxas muttered. He began to walk slowly after them.

"Be nice." I gently warned.

Roxas just continued walking, obviously not interested in what I had to say.

I followed them until we came to a giant house (though it was more like a big red mansion than a house). It had a tall, grey-stoned fence around it's perimeter, with small dragon statues at each fencepost. There was a large, heavy looking, wooden gate at the end of a small set of three steps. As we walked toward the gate, I stopped and stared at what was behind us. There was a seemingly never ending staircase of huge proportions. It was amazing and kind of scary. _Imagine having to walk up all those stairs…_I was getting dizzy just thinking about it.

Yukina walked up to the gate and opened it with ease. As she did, a voice rang out from the other side.

"Yukina!" The deep, very stupid sounding voice said. "You've returned, my love!"

Just from hearing the guy's voice had Roxas in a knot. He had a sweat drop and a sad, sad expression. I found myself laughing at his face. Then I noticed the amount of people standing around Yukina, all staring at Axel, Roxas, and I.

"Yukina, who're these freaks?" An orange haired human asked. His voice was the one that had announced Yukina as "his love". He was very tall, at least 6 feet. I thought his face seemed kind of bulgy and wondered if his statement was true. He just didn't look like Yukina's type.

Roxas looked annoyed at the "freaks" statement. He had anger and displeasure written all over his face. Roxas had always been one for revenge, and the bloodiest type at that.

Yukina hurriedly exclaimed, "I need to get _him_ inside before his flu becomes pneumonia!" At the word "him" she pointed at the sick Axel to help make her point.

Poor guy. He looked horrible. Axel's face was now death pale, and his small green eyes were all red and puffy. The way he slumped made him look like he had been hit by a truck. _Man, I really don't want to get sick._

I now took a closer look at the surrounding humans. They were a mixture of guys and girls.

"You sure ya want to help these shady lookin' guys?" One of the guys asked. He was an average height and had slicked back, black hair that made him look like a gangster.

"Yes!" Yukina exclaimed as she continued to drag Axel into the temple.

Roxas now had an apathetic expression. He turned to me and said, "This is gonna be hell, I know it."

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated. _


	2. A Nobody's Crime

_I would first of all like to thank __The Effervescing Elephant__ and __MidnightAbyss__ for reviewing. Your reviews were the cause of this tidbit's continuation._

_I tried my best to describe the Yu Yu gang, but it may leave some of you confused. Here is the order in which they are described: Kuwabara, Yusuke, Keiko, Botan, Kurama, and Shizuru._

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all. _

…

_Chapter Two_

_A Nobody's Crime _

Roxas now had an apathetic expression. He turned to me and said, "This is gonna be hell, I know it."

"We should at least go inside." I said as I walked toward the gate. I was glad Roxas was with me, because I was really nervous and a little afraid of the people inside.

As Roxas and I stepped into the circle of attention, I examined the humans that stood before us. Standing in the middle, and giving us defensive and unwelcoming glares, was the human who had introduced himself as "Yukina's lover". He wore a blue sweater and had thick dark blue pants on. He had a black scarf loosely tied around his neck and his checks were flushed from the cold.

Standing to the right of him was the one that had called us "shady looking". He wore a white T-shirt and light blue skinny jeans. He looked at us with unforgiving eyes, almost like a wolf's. He was pretending not to be cold, but I could see him slightly shivering.

Next to him was a small girl (not as small as Yukina) who had shoulder length brown hair. She had big brown eyes, and she looked at us with curiosity. She wore an oversized red jacket that probably belonged to the one in only a T-shirt. She wore a long pink dress under the jacket.

To the left of the freakishly tall carrot top, was a normal sized girl with long blue hair. She had big pink eyes that seemed suspicious, yet welcoming. She fashioned a brown jacket and had blue jeans on.

Next to her was someone who looked like a girl. He kind of reminded me of Marluxia, and that sent a shiver down my spine. He had long, bright red hair and green eyes. He wore a lengthy red jacket and had a tan sweater with black pants on.

Next to the Marluxia look-alike was a taller girl with long brown hair and eyes. She had an apathetic expression on her face, and she was smoking a cigarette. She wore a black jacket with fake looking fur around the hood. She also had dark blue jeans on.

The carrot-top suddenly, and very rudely, asked, "Who are you people, and what the hell do you want?"

I guess there was a reason for him to be defensive. Three strange guys, who were all wearing the same black cloaks, just popping out of nowhere, _did_ call for suspicion. I was trying to think of a reply, when Roxas said to me, "We're obviously not welcome here. Let's just take Axel and go."

"But he's sick!" I exclaimed in response. "Besides, I don't think Yukina is going to give up her patient so easily."

"I know how to cure him." Roxas said with a smirk and a malignant glint in his eyes.

"Roxas!" I scolded him. "How many times do I have to tell you? Violence isn't the answer to everything!"

"Damn pacifist." He muttered and glared at me.

I gave him a small glare in return, but it didn't last long. I had just taken note that we were still the center of attention, and everyone around us had listened intently to our conversation.

"Sorry about that!" I quickly apologized, as I put my hand behind my head to show my shame.

Surprisingly, Roxas was the one that got us inside. "We're just travelers that ran into that girl, and she brought us here. If you don't like it, complain to her." He looked unruly as ever, and his speech caused the group of humans to part like the sea during a storm.

I knew that throughout all of this, my sheepish expression had not wavered once. I probably looked like a total freak with my flustered face.

Roxas had begun to walk toward the door were Yukina had entered. The humans around me were starring at me and whispering to one another. Becoming the soul center of attention was too much for me, and so I speedily (and quite clumsily) caught up to Roxas.

The two of us entered the small side building where Yukina had gone into. Inside was a huge, stone statue of some sort of deity, incense burning below it. There was a cloth bed lying on the ground in front of the deity, and there was where we found Axel. His cloak had been discarded to the side of the room, and he lay uncovered by the blanket. Yukina was leaning over Axel; her hands radiating with blue energy.

Axel was wearing baggy black jeans and a button up dark green shirt. Only one or two buttons in the middle were buttoned though. He wore a black shirt under it, so he didn't look like a complete man whore.

Axel was already looking a lot better. His face was much less pale.

Roxas went over to Yukina. "Is that idiot feeling any better?"

Axel's eyelids fluttered open, and he stood up as if nothing was wrong. He seemed to tower over Roxas, and he didn't look too happy. "I think you need something to eat before you kill someone." Axel now had a smirk on his face.

I chuckled at Axel's remark on Roxas's low blood sugar problems. Roxas simply crossed his arms and glared sideways.

"Yes, I think something warm would be good for your cold." Yukina said, smiling up at Axel.

"Oh!" Axel threw his arms up in a comical way. "I don't think we ever really introduced ourselves." He bowed slightly while saying this, a cross between a smile and smirk on his face.

Yukina giggled at this and responded, "I guess you're right." She suddenly seemed embarrassed. "I think it was because I didn't give you a chance to."

"No." I cut in. "It was ours. We weren't being gentlemanly!" I stuck my finger in the air and looked quite dramatic.

Axel chuckled and shook his head at me. "I'm Axel. This dork is Demyx…"

"Hey!"

"…and the cranky ass is Roxas."

Roxas nodded curtly.

"Anyway, thanks for helping us out. My head felt like it was really going to explode, but now I don't feel anything." Axel smiled at Yukina.

"Yukina!? Are you alright?" The voice of the carrot top rang out.

He and the others had come inside, all still very curious.

"Oh, yes. I'm fine." Yukina replied, sweetly. "These three are going to stay here for a while." She said this as fact and seemed convinced we'd be staying here for at least a day.

"Are you sure that's a good idea...?" The Marluxia look-alike began.

Suddenly a very short, old woman came into the room. "You all are lucky I took a break from 'training' to go check on dinner. If I didn't, you dimwits would be eating takeout instead."

"Oh no!" The blue haired girl exclaimed, as she and the Marluxia look-alike ran out of the room.

"I hope everything's okay." The girl wearing the red jacket said, as she and the one with the cigarette followed behind.

The old woman had been looking at us for quite some time now. She seemed displeased and asked, "Who and what are you three?"

Before any of us could respond Yukina intervened. "They are three apparitions in need of shelter. You said yourself that this temple would be a shelter for any demons that need it." Surprisingly Yukina said this all quite confidently.

The three of us weren't really demons because long ago we had all once been human. We'd even met Roxas's Somebody, so that was solid proof. But man. Trying to explain what a Nobody is, to people who live in a world without any Heartless, would be impossible.

The old woman appeared to be thinking, her lips slightly pursed. "Well they don't seem like ordinary demons to me—"

_Busted._

"--_but_ I will let them stay here for a while." She now spoke to us. "My name is Genkai. I own this temple and its surrounding lands. I will not tolerate trouble from any of you." She then put her hands behind her back and turned around stiffly. Genkai left the room quickly, leaving a cold presence where she had once stood.

"Scar-y." Axel stated what we all had been feeling.

Yukina defended Genkai. "Genkai-sensei is actually quite nice when you get to know her. She's just used to having guys like Kazuma and Yusuke around."

"Hey!" I heard the carrot top say. I had almost forgot that the gangster and him where still here. I had already gotten used to them making lots of commentary, something they did nothing of when Genkai was in the room.

"That's not very nice, Yukina!" The gangster commented, still slightly shivering from the lasting cold.

"Sorry Kazuma. Sorry Yusuke." Yukina apologized while bowing.

"Don't worry about it." The gangster replied. "Hey, wait a minute. You guys came in here with out introducing yourselves or anything. Just cause you're a bunch of demons, doesn't exclude you from manners!" The way he moved and talked, I had a feeling that he might have just been joking, but I still felt bad.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Demy. I was sick, and we didn't really get the chance." Axel said, his attitude slightly arising. He smirked at the two humans and added, "Name's Axel. Got it memorized?" _Axel and his trademarks…_

"Roxas." Roxas simply stated as he put his cloak next to Axel's. Shockingly I was the only one still wearing mine.

Everybody had their eyes on me, waiting for my response.

"Um, hey. I'm Demyx. Nice to meet you." I smiled awkwardly at them and struggled with the silver zipper on my cloak. I wanted to get it off of me because I felt so self-conscious with it on.

"What's up with your crazy names?" Carrot top asked.

The gangster seemed to want to know the same thing, but he began to speak before we could say anything. "Well I'm Yusuke, Yusuke Urameshi. This dumbass is Kuwa-"

"The Great Kazuma Kuwabara! Best street fighter in all of Japan!"

"So now it's the entire country instead of just Middle School. Man, your ego's grown with age." Yusuke commented. "Anyway, I could kick his ass anytime, so don't listen to him."

The two of them began to have a heated argument. I could understand why Genkai had said she didn't want any trouble.

Yukina came in-between the two of them, causing them to stop.

"Have either of you seen Hiei? He and Lord Koenma are the only two yet to arrive."

Lord Koenma? It couldn't be the same person, could it?

"Nope. I don't think either of them will show up." Yusuke responded.

"That midget is totally antisocial, and that damn baby is too busy for anything." Kuwabara added.

"This was supposed to be a reunion. We haven't all been together in so long…" Yukina's eyes were sad and distant.

"Well," Yusuke changed the subject. "If you guys are gonna be stayin' here, then we should probably introduce you to the others. The girls were pretty scared of you. They'd probably like you a lot better without those occult clothes on."

Occult clothes. Ouch. I guess it could have been described as a cult, but then again it wasn't really religious. _Oh, I don't know…_

"Sounds good to me." Axel said. "Just as long as crabby ass over here gets something to eat."

Roxas glared at Axel, almost snarling.

"Damn!" Kuwabara exclaimed. "You'd think he was Hiei's twin or somethin'!"

I didn't know who Hiei was, but now I would rather not meet him. If he usually acted like Roxas on bad day, then he'd probably kick my butt.

Roxas appeared to be getting really aggravated, so I thought it was best to change the subject. "So, let's go see what's cooking!" I said enthusiastically as I walked toward the door.

We followed the two Yusuke and Kuwabara, and as we walked, I looked around at the beautiful yard. Everything around me was covered in snow and there was a frozen pound to my right.

After going inside, we walked past many sliding doors, until coming to the kitchen. It wasn't too small, but it seemed cramped because it was jam-packed with people. Yukina, the brown haired girl, the blue haired girl, and the Marluxia look-alike were all bustling about.

"Hey, guys. How's it going?" Yusuke asked.

"Because of Genkai, nothing burned." The brown haired girl replied.

"Where'd Shizuru go?" Kuwabara asked.

"She's outside. She said she needed some air." The Marluxia look-alike replied.

"Well," Yusuke began. "These guys are gonna be taking up refuge here for a while, so I though you might wanna be introduced."

"Good thing we made plenty extra!" The blue haired girl exclaimed.

Wait. They were gonna let us eat dinner with them? _Man, humans in this world sure are nice._

"I'm Botan, the pilot of the river Styx!" The blue haired girl said as she smiled at us welcomingly.

Pilot of the river Styx? Doesn't that mean she has something to do with the grim reaper? _No, that would be crazy!_

"I'm Keiko. Yukimura Keiko." The girl with the short brown hair said. She was taking care of making some sort of fried rice dish, so she wasn't too focused on us.

"I'm Kurama. It's very nice to meet you." The Marluxia look-alike said. He seemed nice enough, but I still didn't think he could be trusted. Sooner or later petals of doom would be flying everywhere. _I wonder if he has a scythe or not?_

"These three are Demyx, Axel, and Roxas." Yukina introduced us, pointing to each of us as she said our names.

After we had made some useless small talk with the group in the kitchen, Axel, Roxas, and I went to the game room. Yusuke and Kuwabara were leading the way, saying that we needed to check out this one awesome game they got yesterday.

I was surprised to see Genkai playing one of the arcade games. _I thought she said she had been training?_

Yusuke was trying to show Axel how to play the game of choice, when Yukina came quickly into the room.

"Koenma's here! He says something horrible has happened!" She was really out of breath and had a troubled expression.

Yusuke, Kuwabara, and Genkai all hastily followed Yukina out of the room.

"You don't think…?" Axel began.

"If it is him, then we're in luck." Roxas stated simply.

"But guys," I began. For some reason, ever since we had come to the game room, I had this bad feeling in my gut. Now it was getting worse. "I got this feeling…"

"Relax Demyx." Axel waved me off dismissively. "We've done nothing wrong."

Despite Axel's words, we all stood there for a minute, an awkward and suffocating silence resting upon us.

"Come on." Axel's voice cut through it like a knife. "Let's go see what this '_Mighty_ Lord Koenma, Ruler of Three _Great_ Worlds' looks like." Axel left the room with a bold trot, Roxas following behind.

I didn't want to go. I had a feeling of impending doom. I could bet anyone that "that horrible thing", had something to do with us three. If it did, what would we do then?

I sighed. "I might as well go." I said to the empty room.

I decided to wonder toward the kitchen because, even though no one had stated exactly where this Koenma fellow was, I thought he would probably be there.

I stopped right before I got to the kitchen. The angry voices within had me shuddering.

"It was them! They have the same lifeless energy as the thief! One of them must have done it!!" Said a voice that I did not recognize. "Yusuke, you must arrest them!"

"Are you sure about that, Binky Breath?" I heard Yusuke ask, confused.

"Yes! Now hurry before…" The strange voice continued.

"Wait a minute." Axel said, butting in. "I don't know what you're talking about, but _we've _done nothing wrong."

"No! You two have the _same_ other worldly energy as the thief! There's no way that there are that many beings around that have this _new_ energy!!"

I walked to the doorway and slightly stepped inside of the kitchen. I had to help defend our names, even though I was really afraid.

Standing inside the kitchen was a man in his late teens. He had shaggy brown hair and brown eyes. The two strangest things about him were the black "Jr." tattooed on his forehead and the blue pacifier he held in his mouth. He looked extremely stressed and angry, and surprisingly, almost on the verge of tears.

"Yusuke, arrest them!" He demanded as he pointed his finger at us. Yusuke edged foreword at his command and seemed ready to fight.

"If it's gonna be like that!" Axel exclaimed irritably. I could tell that these false accusations had really ticked him off, and now he was going to be an unstoppable force.

Roxas had summoned his keyblades and was ready to cut down anyone in his way.

Oh God, no. We just got here and already we're in trouble.

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated. _


	3. A Nobody's Denial

_Thank you to The Effervescing Elephant_, _MidnightAbyss,_ _kit572, UnknownFlux, knyghtstar, and Ph34redMyL33tNinj4Skillz for reviewing last chapter. The commentary was much appreciated._

_The quote in the begging was inspired by MidnightAbyss's "The Right to Exist". It is present on my favorites list, if you wish to check it out. _

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all. _

…

_Chapter Three_

_A Nobody's Denial_

Zexion's PoV

"_All emotions commence in the psyche and are then sent to the heart. The heart amplifies these emotions and returns them back to the psyche so that they may be embodied, and at times, reasoned with…_

_The heart amplifies these emotions…_

_heart…_

_amplifies…_

_emotions…"_

The voice of my old teacher rang through my head. It was a voice I hadn't heard in years, and I had expected to _never_ hear it again. Yet there it was, running the three same words over and over in my mind. _Heart…amplifies…emotions… _

An idiotic theory that _could_ be used to prove that we Nobodies were similar to humans, and that we had the _right _to exist. I never did have much faith in such a theory, and I thoroughly believe that I only have memories of what it's like to feel, and that my emotions departed long ago with my heart.

Either way, those words kept on going through my mind, as if some foolish part of me actually_ wanted_ to have faith, to believe I had been wrongly treated.

As those words continued their never ending cycle, I realized something. I hadn't remembered thinking much about _anything_ recently, and as I searched my mind for any memories that could indicate what I had been doing and where I was, I only got unclear fragments:

The striking pain of fading away after I had been struck down by that useless replica.

Then complete blackness, then light, then grey; repeating through that order in a never ending cycle, similar to what my old master's words did now.

Had that strange experience been what Vexen always referred to as "the void"? Could it be the place he claimed is "where all life began and where all life will end"? And if I really was in such a place, then why was I _thinking? _The thought process is impossible in oblivion, yet there I was.

I realized thought wasn't the only thing I could do. My five senses had returned to me.

I felt my entire body aching, and I found I was quite cold. I was most certainly lying on some sort of very hard surface. An outlandish odor, which was both sanitary and rancid, filled my nostrils. I could hear the somewhat infuriating noise of a liquid gradually dripping unto another surface. And there was also this abnormal sound, comparable to the one a portal creates while open, swishing silently in the background.

I suddenly had a horrific idea about where I was, and if my assumption was correct, then everything I had once thought may have been wrong. Maybe nothing in this life is final, even _death_.

I flexed my fingers in wonder, proving that my body was intact and functioning.

I slowly opened my eyes and sat up. Despite the long bangs of slate colored hair, partially obstructing my right eye, I could see my surroundings perfectly:

A pure white and silver room, with the Nobody symbol spread about. The dripping sound was a product of an oversized, broken container, which was nearly empty. The floor was covered in the desiccated fluid and was a chief result of the odor. I could hear a soft swishing din coming from behind me, and to my astonishment, its source was _actually_ a portal. An incredibly wide dark portal was opened in-between two bullion poles. I knew where I was now: back in the Nobody castle, in Vexen's previous lab.

A thought, which had no heart to go to, told me I should be feeling something like a mixture of happiness and relief. Confusingly enough, another thought told me to be afraid and worried. Fragmented emotions seem to make less sense without a heart. Sometimes I wished I didn't even remember them, so I wouldn't have to deal with all their nonsense.

I was surprisingly torn between two plans. One was to explore the castle to see if any of my comrades remained, and if they did, hopefully they wouldn't try to kill me, _again_.

My other plan was to go through the portal. It was absolutely outrageous! I had no idea where the portal would lead, or even why it was open in a supposedly dead man's lab.

Unless he had come back too. What if we all had? What if I walked out and met Lexaeus, or even _Marluxia._

My curiosity was getting the best of me. I wanted to see what had happened while I was gone. It would be dangerous, though. Maybe taking the form of someone else would be beneficial...

As I continued to develop a reasonable way of exploring the castle, I found that I had taken numerous involuntary steps toward the precariously placed portal.

The portal was not a good option. For all I knew it might just lead me right back into the void.

With these few thoughts I discovered that, not only had I walked further onwards, but I had stopped right at the entrance of the portal. _This is insane! _

I had no control over my body at all. My leg was lifting up to go through the portal. No matter what I did, I could not regain control.

I had entered the portal, and I was surrounded by a swirling blackness that was turning into a blinding light. There was no turning back now.

Demyx PoV

I couldn't fight these guys. They had been so kind to us only minutes before, and the expression I had seen on Yukina's face, right before she ran out of the kitchen with the other girls, was making me feel guilty.

In no time at all we had been surrounded by the Yusuke, Kazuma, and Kurama. They were all in various fighting positions.

The few seconds of peace were over as quickly as they had begun. Axel had shot fire at Yusuke to distract him, the drunken swinging of his chakrams soon following. Kazuma had created a sword out of yellow energy, and he was attacking Roxas. Kurama was holding a rose in his hand. _He really is like Marluxia!_

I wasn't going to fight, and neither were my companions. We had to flee. Fighting would only make us look guilty. I had to work fast.

I summoned my sitar with surprising quickness and created as many water clones as possible. They surrounded us and created an unbreakable barrier. Kazuma was trying to cut them down, only to have them reform.

I continued to string out notes and yelled at my two very surprised friends, "Let's get out of here!"

Axel looked extremely pissed at me, his green eyes blazing with the fire within him. Roxas had sent away his keyblades and had an apathetic expression. He opened a dark portal, to where I wasn't sure, and gave Axel a reproachful look.

Axel ran reluctantly through the portal, weapons still in hand. Roxas nodded at me curtly and walked through as well.

I knew I only had about 30 seconds before the portal closed.

The instant I stopped playing, my clones ceased reforming, and the ground was quickly becoming soaked. Kurama was holding a long green whip, which was most likely the result of the flower he had had seconds before.

Kurama jumped above the clones and slashed it at me.

I wasn't sticking around. As I passed through the portal, I heard the sound of a whip hitting empty air.

Zexion's PoV

A very intense thought of anger and irritation passed through me. I had let a _portal_ control me, like my will was nothing. A much softer thought of relief was hidden under the remnants of resentment. I wasn't back in the void. I was in one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen.

I was in the middle of a clearing in the center of a forest, which was so thick that I couldn't see anything beyond the outlining trees. It was most likely the dead of winter, being that everything was covered in at least a foot of snow. In the sunlight, the snow sparkled like millions of diamonds, and the bright blue sky overhead was a beacon of hope, a promise that spring would one day return.

I could see my breath, proof that I was really alive and there, not just a disembodied ghoul. It was a long missed sensation, the feeling of freezing temperatures making my nose cold.

The clearing was extremely peaceful, not an animal or person in sight.

I knew I needed to figure out where I was and if I could get back to the castle, but for now I just wanted to marvel at this strange place I was in. I noticed for the first time since waking up that the heavy drone of the words, "heart, amplifies, emotions" had finally decided to stop. It was nice to have only my own thoughts in my head, instead of the voice of a teacher, who was long ago betrayed.

My peace was abruptly interrupted. A dark portal had just opened to my right, and running out of it was one of the last people I had wanted to see. _Axel._

He had his chakrams in hand and looked quite flustered, most likely a result of his out of control temper. If he was enraged already, then circumstances were definitely not in my favor.

Axel had noticed my presence and was starring at me in blank disbelief. At least he wasn't trying to kill me, _yet._

The portal he had come out of was still open, and even more surprising, Roxas strolled out of it. He looked from Axel to me, with his eyebrows raised, but he otherwise appeared uninterested.

I really had thought things couldn't have gotten any more peculiar, when _Demyx _came running out of the portal as well. He was holding his sitar, but quickly sent it away, the weapon disappearing in a flash of watery light. Demyx was panting and flustered, just like Axel. He had stopped dead and was staring right at me.

It seemed like a very long time until any of us said anything, and I was surprised Axel was not being as aggressive as I had first expected him to be. The silence was causing my usual thoughts of irritation to pass through my mind, and so I decided to greet them, "Hello." I whispered.

Demyx PoV

I couldn't believe it. _Zexion_ was here. I thought that he had died long before Axel or I. Him being here was a big deal, though. It meant that there were other Nobodies in this place, and maybe we had all been reborn here.

None of us spoke for what seemed like a millennia.

I had never really spoken with Zexion on a personal and friendly level, and the most time I'd ever spent with him was a short mission we had together. During which he had proclaimed multiple times how useless I was and how he had trouble believing the superior saw anything in me at all. I wanted to believe he was a decent person deep down, but with an impression like that…I had no clue what to say.

"Hello."

It took me a minute to register that he had spoken. His voice was barely a whisper, and he was looking at the ground. I looked around quickly, and did the best energy search I could, finding partially to my relief and disappointment that there were no other Nobodies around.

Zexion was looking up again. The one eye I could see was blank of emotion. He appeared to be starring down Axel, and I remembered hearing about the complications at Castle Oblivion, which had caused the Organization to only have seven members remaining. If I was remembering correctly, Axel had been on the opposing side, and had been the indirect cause of Zexion's death.

I had just gotten us out of one fight only to lead to another.

Minutes passed, but no one spoke or moved. I couldn't take it anymore, and I was dying to know how Zexion had gotten here, and how long he had been here.

"Zexion," I said very quickly and nervously. The minute I had begun speaking, a painfully clear memory of him glaring at me and calling me incompetent ran through my mind. "W-what are you doing here?" I knew it was rude, I hadn't even said hi, but I don't think I could have managed much else.

Zexion seemed surprised I had been the one to speak to him, and looked right at me with his mouth slightly open. "I do not know. I arrived here quite unexpectedly. May I ask where _here_ is?"

The way he asked the question made me feel like I was being interrogated, and I had trouble searching for the answer. Thankfully Roxas stepped up.

"We are currently in a world known as the Human World. It is a very large world, and surprisingly enough, it is surrounded by two other much bigger worlds. This place seems to have no Heartless and the only other Nobody we've have encountered is you." Roxas said it all quite matter-of-factly, as if he expected someone who had boasted about their intelligence as much as Zexion did, to know such things.

Zexion had taken no notice of Roxas's tone, and his one visible eye seemed to gleam with curiosity and interest. "I have heard legends of three worlds that were still whole, that had a different kind of darkness then ours." He appeared to be talking more to himself then us. He suddenly became emotionless again and said, "I think it would be better if we continued this elsewhere. It's very cold out here."

I remembered the way Axel looked when he was sick, and mentally agreed with Zexion. It would be better to go somewhere warm. But we didn't have anywhere to go, did we? On top of that, the man who was the ruler of these worlds currently hated us and thought we were thieves. The thought of explaining that to Zexion was a little intimidating.

"We don't have anywhere to go, and I can't believe you actually _just_ got here. You faded before Demyx and me, so shouldn't you have come here earlier?" Axel asked incredulously. I could see Axel was distrusting of Zexion, and thoroughly thought he was lying to us.

Zexion sighed loudly, and I thought I saw Axel twitch out of annoyance. "I was in the void." He stated simply. "I woke up in Vexen's old lab, in the castle in the World That Never Was. There was a portal open between two gold poles. I was literally drawn towards the portal against my will, and after entering it, found myself here. I have only been reborn for 30 minutes at most."

He had been in the void? I had no memories of ever being there. I only remembered fading away and then waking up in Demon World with Axel and Roxas knocked out next to me. Was he lying?

Axel and Roxas seemed to be contemplating the same thing. Suddenly Zexion seemed different. I saw extreme sadness and loneliness in his eye. "You three really haven't found any other Nobodies?" He asked quietly.

"No." Axel said irritably. "Sorry we're not good enough for ya." He had been gripping his chakrams this whole time as if deciding whether or not to attack Zexion. He now sent them away and turned around, taking a step away from us. "Let's go guys. Those humans will be after us, and I think we may have found who the real thief was." Axel turned his head to look back at Zexion; he had a mean smirk on his lips. "But after the way those bastards treated us, we should let them find him on their own."

I hadn't even thought of that, but what Axel was saying made perfect sense. Zexion was alone. Koenma had said that there had been only one thief, and that they had had the same 'lifeless energy' as we did. It all added up. Zexion really must have been lying.

Roxas turned to leave as well, but Zexion spoke up. "I didn't mean _that_. I just wanted to know if you knew if Lexaeus and Vexen are alive…" He didn't finish, Axel had already walked into the surrounding trees.

I didn't want to leave Zexion behind. He seemed so sad, and I bet there was a good reason for stealing whatever he stole. Roxas hadn't left yet either.

"H-hey." I said getting Zexion's attention again. "Why don't you come with us?" I saw Roxas raise his eyebrows, and I swore I heard the sound of wood breaking in Axel's direction. "I mean, we are all Nobodies, and we should look out for one another, especially since we're in a new place like this."

Zexion let out an empty and (even though I didn't want to believe it) cruel laugh. "You still think like that, Demyx? Even after most of the Organization destroyed themselves for power? And I can bet you died carrying out some mission they gave you that they knew you wouldn't survive! Tell me, what was it? It _wasn't_ something insane like disposing of Sora?" He smirked when he saw me flinch at his last question. "They just wanted to get rid of you. Something I had been telling them to do for ages. We Nobodies have no need to _look out_ for one another. We just make acquaintances of convenience and then get rid of what is useless to us. Do you think Axel and Roxas actually _want_ you around? They're only traveling with you…"

Roxas had summoned his keyblades and attacked Zexion in seconds. He never went through with his attack completely, though. I have a feeling that if he did, Zexion would have died then and there. Instead Roxas had Oblivion lightly pressed on Zexion's neck, whose face had turned as white as the snow around us.

"To tell you the truth, Zexion, Axel and I _do_ enjoy having Demyx in our company. He is our friend." Roxas said very calmly. His words created an instant smile to my face. "Even if you act as the Superior did, it doesn't mean that all of us are the same." Roxas finished simply. He sent away his keyblades again, and he turned away from Zexion. He walked into the surrounding forest, following Axel's footsteps.

Even after everything that Zexion had said to me, I still thought that there was something wrong with Roxas's retaliation. "Zexion, when you asked us if we knew if Vexen and Lexaeus were alive, I saw your sadness." Zexion scoffed at my words, though he didn't say anything. He was probably afraid that Roxas might comeback to finish what he had started. "I think you cared about them in your own way, even if you don't want to admit it." I smiled at him, a real, genuine smile. The intimidation I had felt from his minutes before was gone, and instead I felt pity at what I knew he probably would never accept.

"Goodbye." I said, still smiling. I waved at him and turned around, practically skipping into the forest, but refraining from doing so, in case I might trip.

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated._


	4. A Nobody’s Tactics

_The ogres in this chapter have simple English names because I think that is the way they are all supposed to be in the Yu Yu realm. _

_To explain Kuwabara's actions: After the Dark Tournament, three humans capture Yusuke and later force him to choose which one of his friends is a "fake" who is being impersonated by one of the captors. Yusuke picks Kuwabara because Kuwabara's use to getting punched by him. Yusuke happens to be right and succeeds in the ordeal. I used this idea in this chapter, as you will see. _

_Thank you to MidnightAbyss for reviewing last chapter. You were the only one. I could just cry from lack of love…but I refuse. _

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all._

…

_Chapter Four_

_A Nobody's Tactics_

Zexion's PoV

I was glaring bitterly at where Demyx had just stood.

_Even if I cared once, it didn't mean I cared now, or that I can care. He's just some sentimental musician who doesn't know anything. A fool with wishful thinking._

I found that an extremely powerful thought of sadness had come over me. It had stricken me unexpectedly when I had asked if they had found Vexen or Lexaeus. I _despised_ it, as much as I despised Demyx prodding into my business.

It wouldn't go away. It just got stronger, and it was soon accompanied by another thought: the remnants of the feeling of seclusion.

The two of them combined, and they became the closest I had come to _actually_ feeling something since my heart was lost. I could have sworn my chest was hurting, but I knew that was completely impossible. I was just overtired.

The sun was getting lower in the sky, which meant I needed to find shelter fairly soon…

The thoughts of sadness and seclusion had nullified, and a thought of regret took their place. I shouldn't have let them go. I should have taken Demyx's offer instead of giving him a tirade. I wanted to run after them and apologize.

But that was insane. I knew they wouldn't be so kind to me after all that. Axel appeared to think that I was some sort of thief, which meant they probably thought my story was erroneous.

I hated to admit it, but if it had been Demyx alone, I probably would have run after him. He was the kind of (for lack of a better word) _person_ who would just forgive transgressions easily.

I shook my head. I needed to start devising a way to find shelter and civilization. If I could find out what the currency was in this world, I could easily create some. It would be counterfeit of course, and after my influence was released from it, it would disappear. I had noticed that Demyx, Axel, and Roxas had all been wearing "plainclothes", which meant I might want to find another kind of coat to repel the cold. It wasn't like the Organization was still intact.

I began to walk in the opposite direction then the three of them had gone, hoping to find some other form of life, preferably native human.

"Kuwabara, you idiot! Wait! Are you sure you sensed somethin' over here?" A rough voice of a teenager exclaimed. It was not that far off, and it had come from the direction I had planned on walking.

I hadn't expected to find anyone so soon…

"Shuddup! Ya know I'm better than you at sensin' spirit stuff!" An orange haired human had stepped into the clearing. He was extremely tall and quite homely. His small brown eyes met mine for a second, followed by a look of recognition. He looked away from me suddenly, but not without my noticing a wondering and questioning gleam in his eyes. "Urameshi, hurry!" He exclaimed as a glowing yellow sword appeared in his clenched hands. He now glared at me with a cold countenance.

He wanted a fight, and he had been looking for someone. Everything added up in my head._ "Those humans will be after us, and I think we may have found who the real thief was, but after the way those bastards treated us, we should let them find him on their own."_

Demyx, Axel, and Roxas had pursuers.

They had found me, and thought I was their man.

Not good.

The human was charging me, and so I did a reflex attack. I became the best duplicate I could (with my limited time and information), and grabbed a fallen branch. I quickly made it appear to be the equivalent of the human's sword.

I dodged him by partially rolling in the snow, and found I was standing right were he had been earlier. "What the hell?!" He yelled at me, his expression a mixture of shock and anger.

I wanted to set up a definite barrier to my illusion, but I needed to fool his partner and wasn't sure which direction he'd come from. If I could trick the two of them into fighting, I could make an escape. Fighting with the duplicate sword wasn't an option because in reality it was just a stick, so it could be obliterated easily. My swordsmanship skills were also nonexistent.

His partner finally decided to join us. He had come from the original's direction and was now standing next to me. I had wisely dismissed the urge to defensively turn and face him. I was supposed to be fighting with him, not against him.

"He's right there! He's pretending to be me!" I exclaimed in the exact voice of the unexpecting human.

"This again? Oh, fuck it! Kuwabara, get over here so we can solve this!" The human's partner exclaimed.

I turned to face him and threw away the stick. It seemed that I had only sent away the energy sword, but in reality the stick had disappeared and then reappeared on the ground in its true form. The human ran up beside me, he had also sent his sword away. He glared at me and said, "He's the fake, let's just get him already!"

Before I could retort, his partner made a move. His punch came out of nowhere, and soon all I knew was a numb pain and then blackness.

Demyx PoV

As I entered the thick surrounding forest, I saw Axel and Roxas standing next to a badly broken tree. They seemed to be arguing in a hushed tone, almost like two parents trying to conceal their fighting on Christmas morning.

I was secretly hoping I could listen in, but I was so noisy that by the time I got close enough to hear anything, they had turned in my direction. The two of them had serious looks on their faces.

"Demyx!" Axel exclaimed. He looked really mad. I was definitely in trouble. "How could you ask him to come with us!? If we want to prove that we're innocent, we can't have the guilty guy hangin' around! Besides, he's a pompous bastard who used his superiority to be a jackass to all of us! Do you think you _really_ want someone like _that_ around?" After his rant he looked a little calmer but was still fuming. I though it was a kind of funny for Axel to say that, since, if I remember correctly, that's exactly what he used to do to me.

"What Axel said is true. Zexion is not welcome among us." Roxas stated evenly. "I know that you can't understand why…"

"I understand." I said. My voice sounded kind of cold, and I was surprised by it. The others seemed to be too. "Everybody thinks the same way." Roxas and Axel looked really confused by my statement.

I felt a sudden shiver of cold run down my spine, reminding me of my lack of cloak. "Anyway, guys!" I exclaimed cheerfully, changing the subject. "We gotta hurry up and find somewhere else to stay; we don't even have our cloaks. I'm freezing!"

"Yeah," Axel began with his arms crossed, still slightly irritated. "We should really start to try to find something…maybe we could sneak back to that temple place and steal back our cloaks…" He finished with an underhanded expression on his face.

"No, we'd most likely be captured, and Demyx isn't going to let us fight them." Roxas answered.

The two of them began to make decisions while trekking on foreword. I walked behind them. I was glad they hadn't bothered me about my sudden change in mood. It was something that I did a lot, and so they had no reason to worry about me.

I hadn't just been babbling, though. I meant what I had stated. Even though Roxas had said that he and Axel didn't think like the Superior, I thought they did. Not completely of course, but they still had the divided mindset that he had. That they _all_ had. It was the idea of enemy and foe, even within the Organization. The remaining numbers saw me as a threat because I wasn't very close to them. They saw me as a useless pawn that _could_ end up being something dangerous. So they got rid of me.

It also seemed like none of them really understood what it felt to feel utterly alone. If they did they would've accepted Zexion if he had wanted to join us. They wouldn't have scolded me for asking him.

I mean, he was _alone_, right now. In a place he may not even know anything about (I still didn't want to believe he had been lying). And look at us, people who used to be allies of his not sharing any of our information. Just leaving him oblivious to a group of people who would most likely want to arrest him. It was just horrible how no one really seemed to trust anyone else.

I suddenly snapped back to reality, as I head Axel exclaim, "Shelter!" He was comically exaggerating his excitement by throwing his arms in air dramatically.

I looked past Axel's and Roxas's forms to see that we were standing on a hill overlooking a fairly large clearing. In the middle of it was a small wooden cabin that appeared to be unoccupied.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked as we all began to run (and slide) down the hill.

When we came close to the little cabin, we saw that it was cold and fairly dark inside. Axel went up to the door and opened it with ease. The cabin had to be abandoned…

"Surprise, surprise!" A loud teasing voice rang out from within. "Whoa, even the little dude's here, wasn't expectin' that."

"Xi-Xigbar!" Axel exclaimed.

"Oh no…" Roxas mumbled. "Not him…"

Zexion's PoV

A dull and distant throbbing was centered on my nose.

"Huh…" A dubious noise filled my ears, only to be acknowledged as my own voice.

As I began to return back to awareness, I found I was aching all over. My nose was damp and inflamed, my head hurt tremendously, and there were diminutive, conspicuous pains all throughout my body.

I leisurely opened my eyes, my lids felt so cumbersome. I saw the indistinct likeness of a mutedly lit, grey wall before me. Situated in its center was a heavily shadowed, grey door that had no handle and no window. A prison door.

My makeshift plan was a failure. _Not surprising._ I should have been equipped for any circumstances instead of leaving everything to coincidence and possibility. _I'm such an idiot sometimes!_

I sighed, exasperated. I promptly regretted the action, as it made me abruptly remember all my aches and pains. My nose felt broken.

Beating myself up mentally wasn't going to help me devise a way to get out of this place…

_If you had just accepted Demyx's offer and hadn't been an absolute coccydynia about everything, then you wouldn't be in this mess! _

God, how I loathed inner voices, they were always so exaggeratedly blunt.

A strident noise knocked me out of my wrangling. The prison door before me began to open, lifting up into the wall above it. I at first couldn't comprehend what lay before it because a piercingly dazzling light was pouring into my cell from the seemingly small opening.

"It couldn't possibly be the same being. I mean, Lord Koenma met _three_ of them in Ningenkai! This one matches none of the others descriptions. It just doesn't make any sense!" A raspy voice, that couldn't possibly be human, filled the light.

Two sets of footsteps were heard walking into my cell, the doors shutting in an astoundingly rapid motion. A loud _bang_ resonated throughout the cell.

"There was only one thief…" An even deeper and raspier voice added onto what the other had been rambling about. The speaker sounded his words out slowly, making himself sound quite unintelligent.

"And this one was traveling alone! Jack, you're a genius!" The one with the quicker, more intelligent appearing voice cut in. "He must be the one!"

The changes in light had abused my eyes quite a bit, but now they were finally adjusting. I saw two figures standing in the indistinctly lit grey. One was about my height, with cerulean skin and long teal hair. He wasn't wearing much of anything, a leopard print loin cloth his only decency. His friend reminded me of Lexaeus, for he had a livid and ominous expression on his face and was so utterly tall. The immense one had olive skin and black hair with a black loin cloth to match. They both had small, indigo eyes that looked at me with scrutinizing glares.

"You have a lot of nerve stealing from spirit world, especially someone as weak as yourself!" The cerulean one spat, his voice the less rapier one.

His comment was discourteous and quite superfluous; I felt a strong remnant of anger flush over me in response. I was really getting weary of all this "thief" nonsense. I hadn't been here for very long, and I was whishing more and more to be back in the Void, at least while I was there I wasn't pestered constantly by imbeciles.

The enormous, olive one stepped foreword. "Jack." The minute, cerulean one warned. "What are you doing? Get away from h—"

"No." Jack denied flatly, reminding me of Lexaeus again. Being in his presence was agonizing. I felt the strange aching in my chest again, and it was becoming worse than my nose.

"There was only one thief." Jack restated again. "But that man, that stole the amulet, was tall and had the broad solders of a grown man." He spoke every word with a deliberate and rumbling lucidity. Though at first his voice had seemed unintelligent, much like Lexaeus, he seemed to actually be quite clever and could probably be good at deducing things and solving puzzles. Either way, I could tell he was trying to say I wasn't the culprit and that immediately put him on my good list.

"What does th—"

"Let him finish, you annoying dolt!" I exclaimed, a little bit of Vexen shining threw. He always had had the bad habit of rubbing off on people, and I found myself acting just like him sometimes.

The two of them settled their eyes on me again. The cerulean one was glaring daggers at me, and Jack was staring at me, surprised.

"Thank you." He politely interjected into the deathly silence. "Rick, I think it would be better of you left, he probably—" Jack turned to his companion, only to be cut off again.

"I'm not leaving! It's against regulation, and besides, it could be dangerous!"

"I thought I was weak." I grated out. I really was starting to despise (well as much as a Nobody can) this "Rick" fellow.

Rick scoffed at me, but Jack continued, as if neither of our outbursts had occurred. "Please, stay quite, Rick. I won't be able to ask him anything if you keep on interrupting me and antagonizing him."

"Antagonize! He's the one who…" Astoundingly, Rick stopped on his own. "Sorry." He muttered.

"It's fine." Jack reassured him.

Jack had turned to face me again, his expression still extreme, yet I could see compassion under it. You learned how to read a man's true feelings when he always kept one facial expression. Well, with Lexaeus it was more what he was _thinking_, but it was still comparable.

"You are alone. Why is that? Where are the other three? And are either of them the thief?" Though he rattled off questions, he continued to converse slowly, and actually gave me time to consider.

"I don't know what's going on." I replied like an idiot. Despite the pause I couldn't come up with anything plausible.

I really didn't know where I was precisely, or if Demyx, Axel, and Roxas were implicated in this at all. From Axel's words I took it that none of them were the perpetrator, and that they had had the idea sprung upon them as unexpectedly and maybe even as ferociously as I had.

"If you're willing to cooperate and tell us everything you know the committee will certainly be lenient. You may even get off with just a warning." Jack told me straightforwardly.

Committee? I had a sense that they were a group I should probably circumvent.

One question _had_ incessantly nagged at the back of my mind since I had been attacked by the orange haired human: why was I being blamed? Though I knew it was because I was alone, and that I had the same energy as the accused, _I_ hadn't done anything wrong. I wasn't working for forces of the dark, as I once had been. I mean, I'd only been in this world for a couple hours at most! How could I have even done anything wrong?

But.

I was in a dilemma, either way. Some fast talking could get me out of it. Though, I only knew a fraction of the picture, I could fill in the rest. I could blame it all on those ignoramuses, Demyx included. Not like they would have done anything dissimilar in my circumstances. Axel would have blamed me in an instant.

_Axel._

A smirk danced on my lips, and I knew it was most undeniably a deranged one. The lie was speedily forming in my mind; I'd get back at that imbecile for killing me in Castle Oblivion. I'd just get these freaks to do it for me.

Demyx PoV

"You dudes just don't look too happy see me! Sorry to rain on your parade, but here I am!" Xigbar hadn't changed much since the last time I'd seen him. He was still as scarred and as loud as ever, and the eye patch over his right eye was still ever present. His hair might have been a little longer, and greyer, but otherwise he was still Xigbar, Organization cloak and all.

He was sitting on an old wooden chair, which he was leaning back on to its hind legs. His feet were resting on a tiny, matching table, the center piece of the small cabin. His boots were caked with dried mud, and he looked pretty travel worn.

"Xigbar, what are you doing here?" Roxas asked exceedingly coldly. He and Xigbar had never gotten along every well. I think it was because Roxas hated being called "little dude" "blonde kid" or "Sora". Roxas _really_ hated being called Sora. That's probably why I had such a problem calling the actual Sora, well "Sora". Xigbar just had this habit of changing the names off, why I wasn't too sure. He didn't do it to anyone else in the Organization.

"I got a chance at another life; still don't have a heart, though." Xigbar said the last comment to no one in particular, a sober expression on his face. "Anyway, so I was in this big ass hallway that kinda looked like a throat…" He trailed off, an unsure look replacing the sober one.

Xigbar was as weird as usual. I didn't really like or not like him, he had always seemed pretty nice to me.

"You dudes should huddle up in here, it's kinda a tight fit, but at least it'll be cozy."

"I think we should find somewhere else to stay." Roxas told me and Axel, not really caring if Xigbar heard or not.

Xigbar sighed audibly, and resumed a normal sitting position, which caused his chair's front legs to hit the ground with a _smack._ "You guys have probably been bothered about stealing something from that "Spirit World" place…"

"You know about that?!" I asked, without thinking. Roxas looked annoyed, and Axel wasn't too happy either.

"Yeah, 'cuz, well…" Xigbar pulled an amulet from his cloak. It was about the size of the palm of my hand, and looked a lot like the Heartless symbol, except it had a silver eye in the center. The fading golden rays of the sunlight lit the amulet up in an imposing way, and really defined the ridges in the cracked black heart. "…I'm the one who jacked said stolen item." A gleeful grin was on Xigbar's face, and I could see Axel involuntarily flinch at his statement.

"You mean…" I began.

"It wasn't Zexion!" Axel didn't look very sorry. He was more angry about the fact that he had been wrong than anything else.

"_You're_ the one that caused us so much trouble!" Roxas was far more ferocious than Axel, and summoned his keyblades.

Maybe Xigbar shouldn't have been so frank.

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated. _


	5. A Nobody’s Legends

_I finally finished this chapter. I hope you all will like it; there is some slight character development from Zexion this time._

_Thank you to The Periwinkle Power Ranger, knyghtstar, MidnightAbyss, and Lee Wolf 10 for reviewing last chapter. You kept me from throwing myself from a very high ledge. _

_Please note that Demyx's and Zexion's PoV's always take place at slightly different times, so the two sets of PoV events can take up seemingly less time than the other and vice versa. This is why Xigbar may appear to be two places at once, when he really is not. _

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all._

…

_Chapter Five_

_A Nobody's Legends_

Roxas had sprung on Xigbar in seconds, his swinging of Oblivion and Oathkeeper rhythmical and composed. Axel and I were forced to back up, or be caught in the face with a keyblade.

"Hey, little dude, this isn't—" Xigbar tried to get a word in before he was forced to dodge to prevent his head from being bashed in by Oblivion.

The chair and the table were knocked over in this simple motion; the chair soon made into a broken wreck in Roxas's path.

"Fine, I'll just have to show you what this thing can do, and why it's worth _all_ that trouble." Xigbar said while standing in the corner of the cabin, making no notions of moving out of the way of Roxas's wrath.

The amulet Xigbar held in his hand began to glow with the chilling and swirling essence of pure darkness, something that painfully reminded me of fading after Sora had struck me down. Roxas was suddenly frozen in place, his blade inches from Xigbar's face. The darkness surrounded him in a thin layer and caused him to glow an eerie purple.

"What did you do to him?!" Axel demanded, his rage spiking to its own dangerous high. His chakrams were summoned and already had flames beginning to spring to life around them. _I hope he doesn't burn the cabin down. _

Axel charged at Xigbar, going to help his best friend. Xigbar only smiled his weird smile and watched Axel's rage with utter glee. Axel looked like he was going to hit Xigbar with his flame consumed chakrams, when suddenly he stopped too.

Axel was in the same condition as Roxas, the purple glow surrounding his taller, more slender form. Xigbar was no longer standing in the corner; he must have teleported somewhere else…

"Well," His whisper was harsh and unexpected in my ear. "What do ya think?"

I spun around to face him, startled and a little afraid of him. I mean, Xigbar had just seemingly frozen my two friends in time, and now I was stuck alone to defend myself if he decided to get violent. _Maybe he isn't so nice after all._

Xigbar laughed good-naturedly at my response. "Man, I love sneaking up people. Especially you. You're the most overdramatic dude I've ever met."

Overdramatic? I'd never viewed myself that way, but then again maybe I could be a too dramatic sometimes…

"Um, well," I began, having even more trouble speaking to him than Zexion. Xigbar was different from the Superior personality wise, but he was still a higher up that I usually avoided, especially when I didn't complete my missions. "A-are they going to be alright?" I pointed towards the frozen Roxas and Axel.

"Yeah, of course! I just got a hold on their hearts, what's left of 'em anyway. This amulet can do all sorts of things to people's hearts. I wasn't really expecting it to work very well on us Nobodies, but it looks like it does." Xigbar shifted his eyes from Roxas's and Axel's frozen figures to the amulet he held in his hand. His gaze was deathly serious, a rarity on Xigbar's usually smug or joking face.

"How'd you know about the amulet, and how'd you know to go to Spirit World?" I asked, looking wearily at my friends. If Xigbar let them go now, they'd only want to attack and push him away like they did Zexion. Maybe, if I questioned Xigbar alone, I could get some answers out of him. He was one of the original apprentices of Ansem, and Zexion, who was the youngest of them, had even known something about these three worlds. Xigbar was my best bet for answers.

"Legends. Before, when we were whole, we knew some scarce legends about the human heart, the most fascinating to us, of course, was Kingdom Hearts. But after we lost everything, we all began to look into more legends to find the best way to return our hearts. The Superior always had an obsession with Kingdom Hearts, and I know he would have denied any other suggestion, but we still searched. I always liked the old Legends of the Three Worlds, where humans didn't have to worry about becomin' monsters. And about how the Ancients sealed all sorts of _dangerous_ _artifacts_ from our dimension into this one." Xigbar smirked at me, hinting that the amulet he held was one of those "dangerous artifacts".

"Are there more items in Spirit World?" I asked, becoming really interested. _The things you could find out when you didn't boldly head into battle…_

"I think so. I just wanted to jack my favorite one, the Heartless amulet, to see if they could work here. Some legends say the artifacts from our dimension wouldn't work here because of the great disconnection from the Realm of Darkness. But, maybe the amulet works because I carry my darkness around with me?" Xigbar asked a rhetorical question, his gold eye glinting in the fading light. The sun had set, and now only its dying glow lit up the world around us.

A silence settled between us, and a cool night wind blew through the clearing, entering into the still open door of the cabin. I shivered from the cold, desperately missing my long-sleeved cloak. _By the time I get warm, my element will be ice instead of water!_

"Think I should let 'em go?" Xigbar broke the silence, his voice seemingly so loud in the dead quite. "They really don't like me, do they?" Xigbar asked before I could reply to his earlier question.

"Don't worry." I reassured him, he sounded so sad about it. "You're not the only one. They were mean to Zexion, too." I avoided Zexion's actions. I thought they were more a result of desperation and confusion than anything else.

"Zexion's here?" Xigbar almost reeled in surprise. "Is he alone?"

I nodded curtly in response to both questions.

Xigbar _surprisingly_ resembled a worried parent. "He's got to be going crazy with solitude. The kid always hated socializing, but couldn't stand _not_ being around people."

Suddenly, Xigbar slipped the amulet around his neck, pulling his long pony tail out from under the silver chain. Axel and Roxas continued moving as if to attack Xigbar, only to end up in a comical tangle on the floor. Luckily, neither of them appeared to be hurt.

Xigbar waltzed over to where they were tangled and summoned his guns. Axel and Roxas had begun to get up, only to find Xigbar's guns pointed to their foreheads. The two of them froze, glaring up at him. I stood on the sidelines, watching uselessly. _If he kills them, will I even care?_

"Come on, dudes, I'm not here to fight ya. I just want to try and get my heart back. How about you? Aren't ya tired of bein' empty?" Xigbar's words were oddly familiar. They were similar to the words that had persuaded me to join the Organization, if I remembered correctly.

"That's the same nonsense the Organization went on about." Roxas confirmed my thought heatedly. Despite the gun pointed to his head, Roxas was as explosive as ever. Axel was in a similar condition. "Look where it got us! _I_ was brainwashed into believing that joining with that weakling would actually _make me whole. _And all of you died because of him! Trying to change reality isn't going to help anything!" Roxas cried out everything that had been unsaid for so long.

Axel had flinched when Roxas had said we had all died because of Sora. Axel had been the only one of us to sacrifice himself for Sora, thinking that _his _Roxas was somewhere inside the keyblade master. But Roxas was here, next to him, proving that he was still separate from Sora. It was all so weird.

The first thing we had wanted to know, when we had first woken up in Demon World, wasn't where we where or how we got there; it was "why is Roxas here?" Roxas should have joined completely with Sora, but instead he had woken up here, as hate filled and as confused as the day he had left the Organization. Axel claimed that Roxas and him had had a conversation subconsciously that had drawn some sort of closure. But Roxas claimed to have no memory of the conversation. It was like Roxas had been reversed in time, back to his pure hatred of Sora and all his unanswered questions.

"We just wanted to live peacefully, but now you've ruined it! The humans have a reason to kill us all over again, now." A silence had settled over us, and had been broken by Roxas's proclamation. It was the first time the three of us had talked about our plans since Demon World, and it was sort of like a reminder of what we came here to do.

Xigbar looked taken aback, his mouth open slightly, and his yellow eyes blinking down at Roxas and Axel. Even Axel's rage had calmed, staring over at his best friend's showing of sheer emotion. Roxas had always been why I claimed we had hearts. Ours were just different than humans'.

Xigbar had a small, sad smile on his face. His yellow eyes were distant. "If they're looking to kill anyone, it'll be me. Okay, kid?" Xigbar looked Roxas right in the eyes, something I wouldn't have been able to do.

Xigbar suddenly started laughing, sending away his guns. His laughter was more of an empty chuckle than anything else. Roxas and Axel didn't attack him but stood up, both with slightly defensive stances.

"Well, guess I'll be goin'. I have some more items I wanna track down." Xigbar didn't teleport or open a portal; he just turned around and began to walk toward the door casually. He looked right into my blue eyes, his own yellow ones inquiring, right before he walked out the door.

Xigbar knew that I wanted more information. He knew I was interested in what was going on. But I also wanted the peaceful life that Roxas had talked about. I mean, I was the one that had proposed the idea of going to talk to Koenma and live normally. But I was being drawn in on the temptation of "being whole". In my mind that meant having a human heart, something I really wanted. Was I just being weak, or would it be worse not to say or do anything? Would it be alright to just go with the flow, as usual?

Zexion's PoV

"How lenient will this "committee" be?" I asked with my plan fully formed in my mind. I would be primed for anything, this time.

"Depends on how much you'll talk." Jack replied, an undersized and shocking smile on his face. I presume he was pleased his "talking" idea had succeeded.

"I'll tell you people everything, if I'm let off free, to never be troubled by you again." I laid down my stipulations. They were undemanding, and though I almost certainly could have asked for additional benefits, I didn't want to push my luck.

"Fine with me." Jack said as he grabbed my arm and hefted me up.

I felt tremulous on my legs; I suppose I'd been sitting longer than I'd realized. My hands were fixed together with atypical metal hand cuffs, which were bulky and had a dark blue band shimmering vaguely in their centers. They unexpectedly glowed much brighter, and, for the first time, I realized how unreservedly _weak_ I felt. I would have fallen back into a sitting arrangement if Jack hadn't been holding me up.

"Come on, let's get out of here. It looks like those energy drains were unnecessary." Jack said partially to me and the later part to Rick, who sneered at me.

"Like I said, _weak_." He spat, looking at me like he was a superior being. I found the strongest thought of odium flying through me in rejoinder to his deride. I _loathed_ being looked down upon. I wanted to eradicate him where he stood, but I knew that doing so would be the most unintelligent thing I'd ever done.

I was tripped out of my sadistic thoughts by the striking change in light. Stepping into the sizeable, pallid glare was quite tantalizing, and my suddenly diluted state only made me feel dizzier. I was half carried, half pushed, down the corridor, all the while hearing Rick's over-the-top voice, exclaiming how _he_ had gotten the prisoner to cooperate. Rick acted as if the walls had ears and that, if he yelled piercingly enough, they might recognize his _superb triumph_.

I abruptly had a memory pop, quite uncouthly might I add, into my consciousness. It was one of Vexen walking down one of the many extensive and colorless corridors in the Nobodies' castle, with Lexaeus trotting dutifully behind. Vexen was going on about how he had just confirmed _his_ hypothesis to be correct, while I undoubtedly remembered Lexaeus proposing that same hypothesis. Vexen had proposed the polar opposite of what Lexaeus had, and had apparently decided Lexaeus's hypothesis would become his own, if it was the one verified to be accurate. Lexaeus never rectified Vexen, nor even seemed to care all that much.

Jack appeared to have a very analogous attitude toward Rick, which was yet another niggling "emotional" trigger.

I soon found myself standing in the doorway of a vibrantly lit room with nothing in it but a miniature navy table with matching two chairs on either side, opposite of each other. _An interrogation room._

After I was helped inside by Jack, I was greeted by at least one pleasant surprise. It appeared Rick would not be present for my examination, being that he had closed and locked the door from the other side. I suppose he was going to "stand watch" or something like that.

Jack pulled out one of the chairs, and let me softly fall into it. He pulled a petite silver key from his pocket, and seemed to be mumbling something under his breath. Suddenly, a minuscule keyhole appeared in one of my bulky handcuffs. He placed the key inside the cuff and turned it, until the tranquil air of the room filled with a satisfying _click_. The cuffs immediately stopped their solid dark blue glow and fell lightly onto my lap. The restrains were now only an unadorned silver. It was as if the metal itself had been absorbing my energy. Jack picked them up from my lap and walked over to a less significant table in the corner of the ashen room.

I found that I was beginning to recuperate my strength, shown through the fact that holding myself upright was no longer a chore.

Jack walked back to the table and sat down opposite to me. "If you tell me everything you know about the situation, you will most likely be let off free. If you can tell us who the thief is, and your information is accurate, your conditions will be met." He once again spoke with a rumbling clarity, yet at the same time he seemed tired, or uninterested. It was as if he had said comparable lines many times over, for many different varieties of "perpetrators".

I discovered my mind functioning on its own, going over my lie. I had heard Rick cite that someone named "Koenma" had seen three of "my kind". I had figured out that those three were Demyx, Axel, and Roxas, and I could use that to my advantage. I was going to hold Axel responsible. Demyx and Roxas would be accomplices. _I_ would get off free, and then maybe I could attempt to figure out what I was going to do with myself.

"The three that you've already encountered, one of them is the man you're looking for." I said effortlessly. Jack was looking at me with an eccentric expression, but it was most likely just him scrutinizing what I was saying. "He is the tallest of the group, with ruby hair and tiny emerald eyes…"

"Lying isn't going to get you anywhere." Jack stated.

How could he have known?! My lying had always been flawless, ever since I was child. I could tell someone _anything_, and they would believe it…No! He didn't know if I was lying or not! He was just playing an old mind game with me. Saying that I was lying, so that if really was, I would get uncomfortable and spill the beans. _Yet, he could really know that I am lying. What then?_

"I am not ly…"

My hastily made decision was cut short when an earth earth-shattering explosion rocked the air. Jack stood up, knocking his chair over. He turned to the door and began to reach for the handle, when another _boom_ was heard from the other side. The door began to fall inward, blown of its hinges. Jack got out of the way in time, so he wasn't smashed by the weighty white door.

Throughout all of this I had stayed still, but when I saw the figure that stood in the doorway, I stood up immediately. I could recognize any Organization member with their hood up, just by their build and movement. I knew the Nobody standing in the door way was one of the higher ups, maybe even the Superior himself.

My qualms were confirmed when Xigbar's unique voice rang out, "Hey, Zexy! I was getting worried about you, so I decided to come find ya."

I felt myself let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding. The Superior or Xaldin were never "people" I enjoyed having in my direct company, but Xigbar was endurable, and sometimes even _amusing_. Either way, he had always seemed to like me, so I could presume that he wasn't going to kill me any time soon.

"You!" I had almost forgotten about Jack, he was standing off to the side with a distrustful stance. "You were the one I saw! You're the culprit!" He pointed at Xigbar accusingly.

Xigbar chuckled and summoned one of his gun bows. Jack was dead in an instant. Xigbar had shot him right in-between the eyes. I didn't look for very long, and I felt sick to my stomach. _Why I am revolted by Jack's death? He is the enemy…yet so proverbial…_

"Well, come one! We don't got all day!" Xigbar hunched over and made some sort of hastening motion with his hands.

"How are we going to get out?" I asked, still a little disturbed by Xigbar's rash shooting.

"Ah-duh, through a portal. It's not that hard." Xigbar stated quite matter-of-factly. "I'm surprised you didn't do it yet."

"Well, I was…"

"No time!" Xigbar exclaimed, cutting me off. A yell of "I think he's over here!" had come from down the hall.

Xigbar grabbed my arm and raised his other one, both dismissing his gun and summoning a dark portal. He just about threw me into the swirling opaqueness.

I landed, thankfully, on my arms. Xigbar stepped out after me, and the distinct sound of a portal closing filled the sultry, rancid air.

_Just what is that smell?!_

The air around me was thick and held the stench of putrefying flesh and excretions. It was what I would imagine_ hell_ to smell like. The heat was horrendous, and I wanted to take my cloak off._ It's so incommodious…_

"You okay?" Xigbar asked, as he put his arm under mine and hefted me up.

"What is this place?!" I asked as I felt nausea stir up in me again. The ground we stood on was parched and desolate, and the sky was a formidable deep violet. The landscape that surrounded us was completely horizontal, a change from the disheveled, heavy forest I had been in before.

"Demon World._ This_ is where I woke up." Xigbar pointed to the cracked, grey ground beneath us. "It'll be hard for them to find us here."

Suddenly, everything that had just happened in the last few moments registered. Xigbar was the culprit. He was the reason why my nose was probably broken and why all of us Nobodies had received such a cold welcome on our arrival here.

_Rage._

It couldn't have been a remnant. It was so strong. I hadn't _felt_ this passionate about anything in _forever._ I wanted to scream at Xigbar for being such an imbecile. I didn't care if he was far stronger than me. I didn't care if he was my superior. I just wanted to let him know that _he_ was the villain this time.

"You idiot!" My voice was the loudest it had been in ages. I pulled away from him and knew I was glaring daggers at him. "What have you done?! They hate us again! They're going to kill us all! And it's all _your _fault…!"

Xigbar had looked at me with flabbergasted expression, which had turned to an infuriated one, which had just as quickly turned to one full of pity. He had cut me off with a soft reply, which had seemed far more impacting than my foolish screaming.

"It looks like the legends are more then just legends. I thought maybe I was just imagining it, but maybe we are beginning to feel again."

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated._


	6. A Nobody’s Purpose

_I would like to thank The Periwinkle Power Ranger and MidnightAbyss for reviewing last chapter. _

_Whenever Marluxia or Larxene say "Superior" they are saying it with mocking sarcasm, and Marluxia's PoV is filled with many italicized words, which he is saying in the same manner. _

_This story basically takes place Post Kingdom Hearts II and Post Yu Yu Hakusho. So, at this point in the series, Hiei is sort of working as border patrol in Demon World, helping to keep the treaty that was set in order. Just wanted to remind you all, incase Hiei's actions seem out of character. _

_This story was a year old on July 18th. And I have barely gotten out six chapters. Epic fail._

_I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho or Kingdom Hearts._

_That is all. _

…

_Chapter Six_

_A Nobody's Purpose_

Demyx PoV

My window of opportunity was shrinking fast, yet I couldn't get myself to say or do anything. I just stood there, gaping at the door, unable to move.

A silence had settled amongst the three of us. We all seemed to be lost in our own thoughts. Maybe Axel and Roxas were just as dumbstruck by Xigbar's short lived appearance as I was.

"Demyx," Axel's voice sounded really loud in the silence filled twilight. "He could have shot us."

With that simple sentence, I suddenly had the urge to run after Xigbar as fast as I could. I hated confrontation, and I knew that Axel's statement would probably lead to one. I didn't run, but I didn't turn to face my two companions, either.

Roxas sighed audibly, obviously irritated. But with who, I wasn't too sure. "Don't bother him, Axel. Unlike us, he's very open-minded and not locked away in his own little world."

I tuned to face them now; it was hard to make out their facial expressions in the dying light. Roxas had stood up for me again, but I didn't want any sort of wedge driven between him and Axel as a result. So, I gathered my courage and actually addressed the issue.

"No. It was me being a coward again. But, I did get some information from Xigbar, and I knew he wasn't going to shoot you guys. He just did that so you'd stop trying to kill him." My own statement was confrontational, too. While Axel had accused me of being a coward, I had accused him and Roxas of being violent and rash.

Axel still seemed ticked off, at me or Roxas or _both of us_, and didn't reply. Roxas took the initiative instead. "We need to settle down for the night, and get a fire started. It's disgustingly cold in here."

Roxas picked up the broken chair and snapped it easily into smaller pieces. He threw it into the empty fireplace behind him. Realizing Roxas was getting a fire ready; I remembered seeing a large metal container right outside the cabin. It was probably filled with firewood.

I told the others about it and left in order to see how much dry wood we had. As I stepped out in the quickly falling night, I felt the hair on the back of my neck prickle. I had the unnerving feeling of someone watching me.

I quickly dismissed it from my mind. I was just being paranoid, a result of the tense air in the cabin getting to me.

Much to my relief, the metal container was filled almost to the top with wood, and only a couple of the top pieces were damp from snow. I gathered some of the dry wood to bring back to the hearth, and felt the unsettling feeling fade away. _It really is just my nerves._

Marluxia's PoV

I felt a soft chuckle escape from my lips. _How positively intriguing… _

It seemed that only certain members of _The Organization_ had awakened here, and already those select few seemed to distance themselves from one another. It looked like any hope of reforming even part of _our little group_ was gone. But that was no problem of mine; the only other member who had supported me taking control was Larxene. So even if everyone except our _beloved_ _Superior_ had awakened, it would make no difference.

Fate certainly had been a difficult, but in the end rewarding, mistress. She had allowed me to live once again, and She had placed me in the most wonderful of worlds. The idiots who ran that detestable place known as _Spirit World_ had no clue of what was coming, and they had no little _Keyblade Master_ to stop our wrath. Everything was just perfect this time.

Sadly, my fellow Nobodies, with the exception of my _dear _Larxene, had no clue of the gold mine of power that lay before them, completely unguarded. The only one who had seemed to be doing _anything_ right was Xigbar. But even then, he still sought his gains after the pretense of _restoring his heart._ I care nothing for hearts anymore, I only want power.

Though I have to admit, the _terrible two_ and the overly friendly idiot, Demyx, had made quite an impression after only a single day in the Human World. Xigbar _finally_ deciding to make his move (how extremely disappointing it had been), and their odd determination to avoid any major fighting had caused quite a goose chase. The fools who worked for Spirit World had a massive mess to sort out, and by the time any of them came close to the truth, it would already be too late.

Larxene and I had awoken nearby the cabin that was in the hilly clearing before me. When we had learned more about our new surroundings and ventured into Demon World, we came upon a wonderful gift of fortune. Another Nobody's presence had suddenly appeared nearby, and so the two of us cloaked our energies, and dared to move closer. We found that Xigbar had awoken, and we began following him around to see what he planned to do. But, after we discovered that Demyx, Axel, and Roxas had awoken as well, we decided to split up.

Larxene had left when Xigbar had begun to walk away from the cabin, and now I was stuck watching The Three Stooges. Demyx was peering into a large metal box…_I'm bored._

There was no use watching _them_ any longer, the only one could possibly be of any use was Xigbar.

I turned from the small clearing and began to trudge through the forest. Larxene, with her ever resourceful ways, had _acquired_ a pair of strange communicators that Spirit World possessed. It would be easy to reach her, if need be. But maybe I could have a little fun with this first…

A dark and extraordinarily frightening presence made it self known at my far right. I immediately took a defensive stance and stilled myself completely. The presence blinked out and then seemed to explode. Its red hot, yet icy cold feel filled my surrounding area. Whoever, or _whatever_, it was _obviously_ didn't want me to know where it was.

A prick of feeling filled my mind, and told me that my soon to be attacker was coming from my right. My instincts were _always _right concerning things like this. I gracefully swung to my right, my scythe materializing in my hand with a pink flash and a slight poof of rose petals.

But.

The blade hit thin air.

I quickly turned in the opposite direction to try and block the incoming blow. Somehow my instincts had been _horribly_ off. The butt end of my scythe connected and the shrill sound of metal hitting metal filled the air. But, I had moved too late, and the force of the blow knocked out my scythe's guard easily. I felt a searing pain on the side of my left thigh.

The being once again cloaked itself, but I caught a quick glimpse of what it looked like. Spiky hair reminded me ruefully of the _Keyblade Master_, and I had seen a flash red eyes. I knew now that I was fighting a demon, for there was no way a human could have such dark energy in a world like this.

It was extremely painful to stand, and I could feel the blood pouring out of me. But, the demon gave me no time to recuperate from his previous attack, nor a chance to stop the bleeding. Instead I had another prick of feeling in my mind that told me my attacker was coming at me from the front, but I knew he could really be anywhere. I wasn't going to play this guessing game any longer. I only liked things like this if _I_ was the one in control.

"_Come_."

My whisper practically died on my lips, but it was enough. Rose petals materialized around me, glowing pink with my own energy. The demon had been charging at me, hoping to make another move, but he stopped abruptly. He stood on the fringe of petals only to try and cloak himself once again, and continue to use blinding speed to confuse me. _Not so fast, fool._

"_Scatter_."

Before he could escape the petals surrounded him and struck all at once. They looked like pink blades, and clashed horribly with my opponent's dark attire.

A small smirk of satisfaction had only begun to form on my lips before it fell away, replaced by grimace. The sharp and extraordinarily uncomfortable feeling of a thin blade being pressed against my neck was the cause.

"You" A monotonous and icy voice seemed to almost bite out. "And others with your absurd energy have been unlawfully traveling between the Human World and the Demon World. I also have reason to believe your kind is responsible for the chaos ensuing in Sprit World. The prospect of killing you is rather tempting…ugh."

The demon's blade began to pull away from my neck, and I quickly got myself far away from him, my leg protesting all the way. I glanced down at him and saw what appeared to be leftover streaks of electricity passing over his small form.

"My _dear_ Larxene, whatever would I do without you?" I asked mischievously into the surrounding dark.

"Not much." Was her cold, yet humorous reply. She had her arms crossed smugly as she stepped into sight on the other side of the knocked out demon. "He'll probably wake up soon. We should just kill him."

"No. He seems to be working on the side of Spirit World, and if we kill him we'll be bringing unwanted attention to ourselves. Let them chase the others." I said in undignified gasps.

Larxene looked disappointed, but she noticed my struggle and came over to me. "You didn't get your self hurt, did you?" She asked in mild disbelief. She sighed audibly when she saw my wound. "_Cura."_ She said irritably, as green light surrounded the deep gash.

The pain subsided and the bleeding stopped, but the wound wasn't completely gone. Any healing ability Larxene possessed was weak and only for situations like this. She hated using healing magic, and claimed it made her feel like some _loveable little girl_, like Naminè.

"There." She said dryly. "You really would be hopeless without my help." She added with a cruel yet playful smirk.

"_Insolence_." I replied in mock offense.

Larxene chuckled darkly in response and then turned to eye the small demon. He was getting increasingly hard to see in the fast approaching night.

"We really need to leave if we're not going to kill him. He's only been out this long because that shock was enough to kill a strong willed human, but it won't keep someone with his energy down much longer." Larxene stated as she summoned a dark portal. "You'll never guess who Xigbar has joined forces with." She added with a devious smirk before stepping through.

Zexion's PoV

I was leaning my back against a grey rock face that Xigbar and I were using as a fractional refuge. We'd already run into a couple revolting creatures, who were seeking to eat us. Xigbar had quickly taken each of them out, and had continued to shuffle me along the desolate landscape. Ever since my outburst and his quiet reply there had been a heavy silence resting upon us.

"We need to set your nose." Xigbar broke the silence just as I had acknowledged it. He was suddenly standing up, the luminosity of the fire he had just finished feeding was lighting his face ominously.

I merely looked at him and made no attempt at response. I let him set my nose back in place without any dissent. The pain and stomach-turning snapping noise made me sick to my stomach again.

"We don't have hearts." I stated a couple minutes later. Or maybe it was hours. I can never tell.

"Then how do ya explain '_They're going to kill us all! And it's all your fault!_'" Xigbar said, mocking me lightheartedly. I was not amused. "I'm not sayin' that we _did. _I'm just sayin' that this world is very different from our scattered and tormented one, and because of it our hearts may be returning…"

"It can't be _that_ easy!" I exclaimed viciously yet again. Sadly, I continued before I caught my own foolish hypocrisy. "All the work and research we did to try and get out hearts back; it can't all be in vain. If it was so simple, than we should have tried coming here instead trying to open Kingdom Hearts! I mean I only came here because of an eccentric portal in Vexen's lab! If we had the means to do so then why didn't we…?"

I stopped because of the look on Xigbar's face. He didn't have to say anything, his eyes said it all. We didn't try because the Superior wouldn't have tolerated it. _Maybe Marluxia should have taken over after all…_

"Now, what did ya say about a portal in Vexen's lab?" Xigbar asked, minutes or hours later, I still can't seem to recall which.

"I woke up there, after being in a bizarre place. Dark, light, and grey had continuously cycled before my eyes. It was like I was in Limbo or the Void. And…" I trailed off suddenly remembering the words I had woken up to. "_All emotions commence in the psyche and are then sent to the heart. The heart amplifies these emotions and returns them back to the psyche so that they may be embodied, and at times, reasoned with." _I repeated in an enthralled voice.

"Lord Ansem said that once." Xigbar reminisced with a cheerless smile. "I'm surprised you remember from so long ago."

We both knew which "Ansem" he was referring to. The one that had taught us all, even the Superior. I'll never forget how much the Superior had grown to detest him, and eventually…

I needed to finish telling Xigbar what had happened. "_And_ when I opened my eyes I was in Vexen's lab. I was attempting to figure out what to do with myself when I began to subconsciously walk towards a dark portal. The portal was between two bullion polls and had been open when I woke up. It drew me towards it, and it overcame my will." It was difficult for me to admit that anything had ever overcome _my will. _It was on _my headstrong will_ that had gotten me to become one of Ansem's renowned apprentices. It was _my everlasting will_ that had allowed me to become such a humanistic Nobody. Yet such a simple thing as a portal had overtaken me.

"Darkness has an unshakable grasp." Xigbar told me. "Though the portal didn't lead into darkness, it was created from its power, and if it wanted you to enter it, than there was no way to avoid doing so." It was one of those peculiar moments where he was actually acting mature and intelligent. One of those moments where he actually acted his age.

"But it's strange. I don't remember being anywhere like that. I just remember being defeated and then waking up in Demon World. Why would you remember being in the Void? And why did you wake up on our world first?" Xigbar pondered into the air, his expression somber. "It means something." He added unexpectedly, looking me straight in the eyes. His golden eyes seemed to glow with a fierce intensity that I had never seen before.

I adverted my gaze, feeling exposed. Xigbar was a little unsettling when he was being solemn.

"I know what you're thinkin'. '_As if. This old dude doesn't know what he's jabbering about!_' Am I right?"

He also appeared to be able to bounce back from one mannerism to another like he was switching masks. It was more disturbing than his golden gaze. "No. You're not correct. I think you presented a very credible hypothesis." I replied.

"You sound so much like Vexen, it's creepy. Except you're a lot younger, and way politer." He gave me his distraught and joking smile. It seemed like the serious deducing Xigbar had gone away and wasn't going to come back for a while.

I sighed. Xigbar was becoming a headache…

"You gotta be tired. Interdimensional travel takes a lot outta ya." Xigbar said with bona fide concern on his face. "Ya also got your nose broken, and you were kidnapped_ twice_. I think that deserves a little rest."

"Fine." I groaned out, knowing I probably sounded like a petulant teenager, but not really too apprehensive about it.

I slid down to the ground, resting on my discarded cloak. It was so sweltering here; the fire was really more for light than warmth. And I still wasn't used to the stench, though it was less pungent than when we'd first arrived. I sighed again. My body felt extremely weighty. I guess Xigbar was right, interdimensional travel does take much out of you…

Marluxia's PoV

"You can come out now. I know you two've been followin' me around, and I know that ya want to ask me somethin'." Xigbar's voice cut out from the darkness of the makeshift campsite.

"I had a feeling you _knew_." I replied with one of my silkiest voices. I stepped out into the barely surviving firelight, Larxene following my lead.

Zexion's sleeping form was facing a choppy rock face, and Xigbar was peering over at us with flashing yellow eyes. "It's about the kid, isn't it?"

I knew he meant Zexion. "Well, of course. His experiences are very different from ours as well, and I have a feeling that the other three _idiots _don't remember being in _the Void_ either."

"He might be important to the scheme of things. _The Superior_ always held him in a slightly fearful regard, on which we never got any intelligible reasons why. I suppose you might know." Larxene said in an equally smooth voice, though hers had an edge that was wonderfully frightening.

Xigbar seemed neither impressed, nor intimidated by our manners of addressing him. "Now why should I go about telling you that?" He asked with a conniving smile. "Though, I'm just surprised Vexen went so far with researchin' these worlds. If the Superior had ever found out, he coulda gotten himself banished."

Banished. It was a lot worse than you might think.

"That's practically what he did to us when he sent us to Castle Oblivion." Larxene cut in bitterly. "He was "misplacing" everyone who was becoming dangerous. Which means that _that_" She pointed at Zexion as if he was a pile of filth. "must have threatened our _Superior_ in some way."

Xigbar chuckled. "I was hoping you'd get the hint. But I really don't know why he'd see Zexion as intimidating. He's not very powerful, and he's closer to Roxas in age than anyone else. The way he came back is definitely an indication of something, though…" Xigbar was being deathly serious now, his purposeful accent disappearing in an instant.

"How about we help each other? Zexion isn't going to trust me or Larxene, but he seems to trust you. And we have some _items_ that could be of interest to you…"

"You mean you have the others!" Xigbar exclaimed, standing up. His face was hardly distinguishable now, but I could just imagine his expression of pure shock.

"I'm a lot better at stealing then you are, old man." Larxene replied smugly.

"Wha-?" A half asleep voice groaned out.

I immediately opened a portal. Larxene stepped through first.

"Think about it." I bated as I disappeared within the swirling blackness.

Demyx PoV

I couldn't sleep. I had that sinking feeling I get whenever something bad was going on.

Roxas was sleeping soundly on the small bed in the corner of the cabin. Axel was sitting on the floor next to it, his own hunched over form making quite snoring noises.

I needed to get my mind away from worry, and then I could sleep. I allowed myself to go over the nights events, mostly filled with Axel and Roxas's random and heated bickering, over the tiniest of things. Their last spat had been about who was going to sleep on the bed. I actually sided with Roxas on that one. I mean, he was the youngest, and the bed was too short for me or Axel anyway. Axel's way of showing his disapproval was to sit next to the bed, and glare bitterly at the back of Roxas's head until he finally gave into exhaustion.

A quiet chuckle escaped from my lips. They really were pretty funny. My eyes, already well adjusted to the dark, roamed over to the door at the other end of the cabin.

_Xigbar. Zexion._

That's where my worry was coming from. There was something going on with those two, and it would only lead to more trouble for the rest of us.

Regrets poured into my mind. I should have convinced Zexion to come with us. I should have said more to Xigbar. Maybe then I could have stopped whatever was going on now…

_Knock. Knock._

A quite knocking noise was coming from the door. _Who could that possibly be?! Maybe I should wake up the others?_

_**Knock. Knock. Knock.**_

It was much louder and faster now. I was scared senseless, but for some reason I was drawn to my feet and found myself walking towards the door.

I opened it, and I felt my breath get caught in my throat. There was no mistaking the man standing there.

It was the Superior.

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated._


	7. A Nobody's Compassion

_I would like to thank MidnightAbyss and LightsDarkChild for reviewing last chapter. _

_I have to say that I really enjoyed writing Marluxia's PoV, and his dynamic character development will be explained more next chapter. _

_I really did not expect the twist with Demyx and Xemnas, either. It just happened. I hope you all enjoy the fight scene, though they really are quite a challenge for me to write._

_I personally think there is way too much dialogue in this chapter. But that is just the way it turned out. _

_I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Yu Yu Hakusho._

_That is all._

…

_Chapter Seven_

_A Nobody's Compassion_

Demyx PoV

I stood frozen in place, staring at his deep orange eyes, which seemed to glow in the darkness. He smiled at me, his white teeth standing out brilliantly from his dark complexion. His smile wasn't as disturbing as I remembered, and it actually seemed _sad_…almost _unsure._

"Number Nine…" His slow and menacing voice pierced the silence, but there was something off about it. It had a strange echo to it, as if he spoke through a tunnel. "You have almost found your heart…" His voice was extremely muffled now, and his face was vanishing. It was as if he was being slowly blotted out from my mind. "But why…? Why can I not find mine…?"

He was suddenly far above me, the doorway and him towering over me. His shape in the door seemed to be disappearing fast, and all that was left was a blinding light.

The light was rising up higher, and I was surrounded by pure blackness, still frozen in place.

I felt a strong pressure on my shoulders, and it seemed as if I was being shaken. My head was bobbing, and the world was spinning around me.

"Demyx." A familiar yet unknown voice rang out in my spinning world. "Demyx! **Wake up! Demyx!**" The voice was booming.

…

My eyes fluttered open. I was starring up into Axel's infuriated face. "You've been muttering to yourself for awhile, and it's been really creepin' me out!"

"He really was getting scared." Roxas's monotone cut across the room. "Just what kind of dream were you having?" A slight hint of curiosity dipped into his voice, as one blonde eyebrow was raised.

I was about to tell them how I had heard the knock at the door last night, but something in the back of my mind told me "_It is of no importance. They do not need to be informed." _

And that's just what I told them. "It's not important. Just a stupid nightmare." I closed my eyes and gave them a warm smile, to keep myself from looking away in shame from my almost lie.

"Whatever." Axel said, standing up straight, looking exasperated. I noticed that he was wearing a long dark green coat.

Roxas wore a similar black and white one, and his red and black shoes had pieces of melting snow stuck on them. He gave me a small, empty smile when he saw me noticing. "I got us some new cloaks."

"How far away did you say the nearest town was again?" Axel asked, a little too loudly.

"This one is for you." Roxas said, completely ignoring Axel's question. He held up a folded navy blue coat. "I guessed on your size, but I think it'll fit."

"Don't ignore me!" Axel exclaimed, glowering down at Roxas. It seemed things were still tense between them.

"I was hoping some food would make you more agreeable." Roxas finally acknowledged Axel's existence.

As Roxas walked over to the now turned up table, I noticed how tired he looked. _Was he out all night getting these things?_ There was a brown paper bag on the table, and for the first time I noticed the smell of…cold cheeseburgers?

"Maybe, if you'd stop acting like a little bitch…!"

"Stop it!" I yelled at them. Axel turned his ever burning, emerald gaze towards me, and Roxas set his tired, crystal blue eyes in my general direction. "If we keep on fighting amongst each other, then we'll split up…!"

A crushing silence settled between us, and Axel sighed loudly. He was staring at Roxas with tired eyes to match the blonde's own.

"I-I don't want to be alone." Neither of them were looking at me. "…We came here to live peacefully, right? How are we supposed to do that if we keep on fighting?"

Roxas walked over to where I was still sitting on the floor, and held out the arm that had my coat draped over it. "You're always playing the peacemaker, aren't you?"

"I guess it's my job." I smiled at him sheepishly and took the help up. He gave me my new coat, and I put it on. It was a little too big, but it would be good enough.

"Well…" Axel's voice sounded puzzled instead of infuriated. "Well, I guess…I…uh…"

"Don't bother apologizing." Roxas cut through Axel's unintelligible stuttering. "You always were obnoxious." A playful smirk adorned Roxas's features, and he seemed less tired.

Axel made a strange face and sighed again.

Yet another silence came upon us, only to be broken by the rumbling of my stomach.

"…Sorry." I put my hand behind my head and chuckled, extremely embarrassed.

Axel walked over to the table and grabbed the paper bag. "Roxas brought some _fast food_ back too. Here, these two are yours." He pulled two small burgers out and tossed them at me.

I caught the first one okay, but the second was more difficult, and it almost went tumbling to the floor. I was more embarrassed than I'd been in a long time.

I sat back down on the floor and unwrapped the first burger. Despite the fact that it was cold, it was good. It had been a really long time since I had last eaten something like this.

"The nearest town is an hour away by bus."

It took me and Axel both awhile to realize that Roxas was answering Axel's earlier question. "So, you were listening to me after all."

"How'd you afford all this?" I asked after I finished the first burger. The coat I was wearing was really good quality, it probably cost a lot.

A small smirk adorned Roxas's lips, and there seemed to be a slightly mischievous glint in his eyes. "I have my ways." He replied mysteriously.

"I think Axel's starting to corrupt you." I said around a mouthful of burger.

"Damn straight." Axel confirmed proudly.

I couldn't help but chuckle at their antics, and Roxas had a slightly amused expression on his face, his small smile beginning to become and ever-present feature.

"There is a bus stop near the foot of the mountain, about seven or eight miles south. The bus comes about every three hours, and one should be arriving by noon." Roxas went right back to business. "If we want to get off this mountain and find a new place to _live peacefully, _in a timely fashion, then we need to leave now."

"So, we're finally gonna start trying to live normally. Hopefully, those weirdoes working for Spirit World will catch Xigbar and leave us alone." Axel commented as he tossed the paper bag into the burnt out fireplace.

"_How __**normal**__ can you be when you are still so empty? Still a nothing?"_ The voice that had been in the back of my head earlier decided to make itself known again. _"How fulfilled can you be when you still only pretend?"_

"Demyx!" Axel and Roxas exclaimed at the same time, the sound of short and hurried footsteps soon following.

I opened my eyes, thinking that I didn't remember closing them. I was hunched over, gripping my head with my hands. _That voice…it sounds just like the Superior! But it can't be…?_

"Demyx, are you alright?" Roxas asked. The worry in his voice was surprisingly strong.

"Pull it together!" Axel exclaimed as he put his hand on my shoulder.

"Guys, I…I think that the Superior…" I started to say as I looked up at Axel in astonishment. "I think he's in my head."

A dark chuckle echoed through my mind.

Zexion's PoV

"Think about it."

I recognized that voice. It was Marluxia's.

I sat up immediately, and turned in the direction of the voice, but I only saw the dim outline of Xigbar standing up. His arms were held in an anomalous position, as if he had just taken a defensive stance, and was beginning to relax.

"Marluxia was just here, was he not?" I asked. My voice was irresolute and a little raspy from sleep.

"What makes you say that?" Xigbar asked with an incredulous ring in his tone. I couldn't see his face, and he made himself sound so credible, yet I knew he was lying to me.

_I never should have trusted him. He could have killed me in my sleep! _No. He wouldn't have rescued me if he was just going to end up killing me.

"I know he was here, Xigbar. You can't deceive me." I stated, my voice sounding ten times more certain than before. There was an underlying tone of resentment and repulsion in my voice, which I hadn't heard since before I lost my heart.

_My heart truly is returning…_

Xigbar chuckled, the way a teacher would at a young student who was spouting nonsense. "I think you were _dreaming_. And I think you should go back to sleep. The sun will rise in a couple hours, so we have some more time before we need to continue on."

"What did he want?" I questioned yet again, ignoring Xigbar's rejoinder.

Xigbar sighed. "You never make anything easy, do ya kid?"

I stared intensely at his opaque form in the violet darkness. The fire had completely burnt out, but my eyes had adjusted enough to show me that there was a faint plum glow coming from the dismal sky above.

Xigbar sat down, making quite a bit of noise in the dank and sweltering silence of the night. "He wants you."

I recoiled in disbelief. I could feel my mouth hanging open. "Does he want revenge? I'm not the one who defeated him."

If Marluxia was here then it was inevitable that he had been _killed_ by someone in our world. Probably Sora. Or Axel. And if that _was_ the case, then what would he want with me?

"You still don't get it, do ya?" Xigbar asked, chuckling as he did before. "Marluxia needs power and support if he wants to do the things I imagine he's plotting. And _you_, Zexion, know very well what you could do to contribute to that." Near the end, his voice had a dissimilar tone, as if he was making a proposition.

_It can't be __**that**__? But what if that __**is **__what he meant?_

Another memory, analogous to the one I had recalled when in Spirit World's custody, popped into my head at that moment.

It was of me sitting in Lord Ansem's study, looking rather edgy, and fourteen. I was looking everywhere but at the Lord, my nerves were practically out of control.

I had been interviewed and tested many times by each of his apprentices, all of whom seemed to like me and also appeared to believe that I was worthy of being one of them, despite my young age. All except one. Ansem's first apprentice.

Xehanort was intimidating even before he was taken by the darkness, and I had finally met him and gone through his test only an hour before. He had been acting peculiar, like he had thought I was _eccentric_ or even that he was _troubled_ by my presence.

"Ienzo." I remember how Ansem had looked at me, his sapphire eyes filled with warmth. "It seems that you are more than qualified to become my apprentice. You also seem to be well-liked." He had smiled at me.

"Not by everyone, sir." I had replied quietly. It's really quite astonishing how utterly straightforward I was back then.

Ansem had chuckled at my reply and reassuringly said, "Xehanort's just a little _intrigued _by you. He'll warm up eventually."

_He never really did. _

"I-intrigued?" I had sputtered out. "What is that suppose to mean, sir?"

"He just wants to know more about the power you hold." Ansem had stated.

"Power?" I had asked, completely dubious.

"You'll understand eventually."

_I never really did._

The one thing that I did comprehend was that the Superior always held me in an estranged regard. As if there was something wrong with me. Or as if he was frightened.

"I don't even know if I have anything to contribute." I said, after a couple of minutes of silence.

"But there's definitely something. And Marluxia thinks that he needs that something." Xigbar replied, stating the situation again.

"What did he mean when he said _think about it_?" I asked, remembering the words I had woken up to.

Xigbar chuckled again. "He wants me to convince ya to join him, since he knows you'd rather die than listen to anything he hasta say."

_Xigbar could be lying. Just like when he was attempting to convince me that Marluxia hadn't been here. But something tells me he's speaking the truth. Could that something be…my heart?_

"I am not going to help _him._ That would be _worse_ than helping _Axel_." I spat.

"Axel did say he was the one who got that Replica to _absorb_ ya in the report." Xigbar said with an amused tone in his voice.

"Don't remind me." I muttered, feeling humiliation and resentment bubbling up. It was such an alien experience that I felt myself shutter in response.

"What ever did happen to that Replica, anyway?" Xigbar asked, almost as if to himself.

"I don't know, and I don't ca…" I began to say but then stopped myself.

Xigbar was always trying to bate people into figuring things out for themselves. He really reviled the idea of just coming out and telling you anything. He was attempting to get me to connect the dots, to see that the way I _died _might actually have something to do with the way I came back.

"You think that because I was _absorbed _instead of just fading like everyone else, I woke up in Vexen's lab?" I asked, looking at his onyx form skeptically.

"Ya never know." He replied, neither confirming nor denying anything. He really was that most peculiar scientist I'd ever met. "Ya really should get some more rest. We got a lot to do when the wonderful demon sun rises." Xigbar suggested sarcastically.

"I suppose, though I doubt I'll sleep much more…" I said as I attempted to rest on my cloak.

As silence settled between us, I realized something. I was traveling with someone who was currently the enemy of the rulers of this place. Wouldn't that get me into more of a dilemma? But, Xigbar had already "rescued" me from the odd beings at Spirit World, so I suppose that would put plenty of blame on me.

I sighed. There was so much happening already, and I'd barely been here for 12 hours.

Marluxia's PoV

"Do you think Xigbar will cooperate?" Larxene asked as we walked through a snow blanketed park in the Human World. The well adorned lampposts cast an eerie orange light over the sparkling landscape.

"Sadly, I really don't know. The thing about Xigbar is that he's_ completely_ unpredictable. He could play into our _little_ plot, or he could defy us and try to get the other _artifacts_ by force." I replied, annoyed at Zexion for cutting our bargaining time short.

The part of the park we were in seemed completely empty. The few humans we had seen had avoided us when noticing the cloaks we adorned. It seemed that even in these worlds; long black cloaks are associated with power, darkness, and fear.

"Telling him that we had the other artifacts was a risk. But I _know_ that I'll be able to convince him to play his role." I continued, getting a strange feeling in the back of my mind. _Someone's watching us…_

"Why does he want them so badly, anyway?" Larxene asked with a slight attitude. "They really aren't all _that_ special."

I could feel a faint presence behind a tree we were passing. It was well suppressed, but not as thoroughly as the demon from the woods. I summoned some thick rose stems from the ground around the tree in an instant.

They spiraled out from the snow and were about to close in on the spy…

Larxene gasped, and exclaimed "Watch out!"

I dodged away from her and turned around quickly, summoning my scythe. The unmistakable sound of a whip crack had echoed through the quiet.

Our attacker was nowhere to be seen, and Larxene was standing on the other side of the wide park sidewalk. She had some of her knives in hand, and they were already glowing with a slight electrical charge.

Everything was still now, but I knew that our attacker was waiting in the dark, planning on how to strike again. _They like to watch and plan…_

"Playing games, are we?" Larxene asked into the quiet. Though she had a mocking tone, I could tell she was nervous. "I like games." She added darkly, covering over her nervousness as best she could.

A small object caught my attention to my left. It was heading towards Larxene. It had an odd green glow compared to the orange tinted backdrop, and I had a feeling as to what it was.

I summoned a rose petal barrier and commanded one of the petals to intersect the object.

The small green glow was knocked down into the snow, and a plant quickly sprouted up soon after. It was a _disgusting _Venus Flytrap. Its "teeth" were disturbingly large.

"W-what…?" Larxene sputtered out, obviously clueless to what just happened.

"Our opponent has _stolen_ my technique." I spat as I moved closer to Larxene. I sent the rest of my petals to rip up the Flytrap, and summoned a new barrier.

_I've never met another plant manipulator before. _Despite our circumstances, I was intrigued to know more about this attacker. I was even more intrigued by the _feeling of excitement_ that coursed through my being. But I couldn't possibly be _feeling_ anything.

"Spirit Swor-What?!" A very_ ugly_ human jumped out from the dark, in position to summon some sort of weapon. He quickly got out of position and turned to yell to the right. "Kurama, you said there was only _one_ girl!"

_Wait, did he just say that there are __**two**__ girls?! __I know I'm beautiful, but_ _**please**__._

"Idiot." Larxene spat smugly. She shot a bolt of lightning in the direction the human had yelled, causing a small explosion when it hit a tree.

The person that dodged Larxene's attack was the polar opposite of the ugly human. He had long red hair, big green eyes, and a face that could rival my own. He was obviously our earlier attacker, the plant manipulator. _Are we all so beautiful?_

I could feel his energy perfectly now, and I could tell that he wasn't really human. He had demon energy and human energy perfectly coexisting within him.

Larxene let out a cackle of delight, and continued to send bolts of lighting toward the redhead.

_Don't kill him, Larxene. I want to find out more about him. _I pleaded to myself.

The ugly one finally registered that he had made a mistake and that his partner was paying for it. He summoned a glowing yellow sword, made of pure, wild energy. He had the most moronic battle cry I have ever heard.

Since Larxene was having fun playing with the other plant manipulator, I decided to take care of the ugly human. I sent some of my petals towards him, and teleported behind him with a pink flash. I could feel a smirk of glee on my face.

I swung soundlessly at the human while he tried to avoid my quick, yet slightly patterned petals. He surprisingly turned around and blocked my scythe, but he let one last, unnoticed petal through. It left a deep gash against his bulgy check.

I heard Larxene cry out from behind me, and so I summoned yet another barrier and sent all the petals toward the ugly human at once.

I turned towards Larxene and saw that she was on the ground, holding her left side. She was bleeding badly and gasping. The redhead was standing over her with a long whip that looked like an extended rose stem. _That's probably what it is. Not a bad idea, either. _The thorns seemed to be enlarged, and quite a few of them had blood on them.

Something _extremely_ annoying happened then. It was like a spike of pain in my chest that made me _feel_ (there was no other word for it) pure rage. I wanted the redhead _dead_.

_I can't lose her._ The thought appeared out of nowhere.

And then, I lost control.

I sent a large number of rose stems at him, oddly so similar to his own weapon. I teleported behind him and swung my scythe upwards, but he dodged and sent _his_ petals at _my_ stems. His petals tore them to shreds.

His fighting style really was _exactly_ like mine. The only way to win would be to out maneuver him. By my sudden _burst of emotion_ wasn't helping things.

I jumped away from him. I was having trouble thinking clearly, and I _needed_ to calm down. Larxene wasn't doing well either and-

I peeked over at where I'd left the ugly human and saw that he was on the ground, covered in blood.

-I needed to finish this quickly. On top of everything else, my thigh was starting to hurt again, and if I kept moving like this then I would probably open the wound again.

The redhead was keeping his distance from me, probably watching and plotting. _Just my luck to be pitted against a gorgeous genius. _

I summoned a barrier of petals around him, instead of me, and shot them at him all at once. He didn't even move, and not a single one grazed him. He had summoned his own barrier of petals, and so the attacks had canceled each other out.

The quick finish I had gotten with the ugly one was _obviously _not happening this time.

Out of pure annoyance, I sent a group of rose stems spiraling out of the ground below him. He easily dodged by jumping and used his own "rose whip" to tangle and break my stems.

While he was still in the air, I teleported behind him and did a five slash combo. He dodged the first three and was barely grazed by the fourth. But the fifth slashed him along his right side. It didn't appear to be too deep, and he retaliated with his whip.

I _unfortunately_ misjudged its length (or he made it longer, I can never really remember which) and was caught on the right shoulder.

_I am really getting __**tired**__ of all these battle wounds. They aren't my style. _

I couldn't hold up my scythe anymore, and I was bleeding badly. The thorns had dug in deep. It looked like this fight might be over…

_What am I saying?! I just have to leave and recuperate. Then, I'll be able to come back and retaliate-_

But, that was before. I had been the last one left. Larxene had already gone. But now she was alive, and I had to make a decision.

_Decision?! _I argued with myself. _She shouldn't matter. She's served her purpose and now she's useless, so __**leave her to die!**_

_I-I can't._

Before it wouldn't have mattered, but now something told me it was wrong. Something made me want to keep her alive.

I needed to negotiate with him. The chances of him believing me were slim, but there was nothing else I could do now.

_So weak. _The back of my mind spat.

"We know where all of the stolen artifacts are." My inner battle had only taken seconds. The redhead's deathly serious expression faded into one of surprise. "I'll tell you where all of them are, and I'll take all the blame. Just heal _her _and let her go." I pointed to Larxene, with my almost limp right arm, while I used my left to hold myself up with my scythe.

_I really don't know what I'm doing anymore._

The redhead didn't seem suspicious, as I had expected. Instead he was looking at my face intently. "You're not a demon." He said finally.

What was that suppose to mean? _Of course I'm not a demon!_

"Kurama!" A voice came from behind me.

"It's alright! The fight's over." It…_actually_ worked. "Just take care of Kuwabara and the blonde. She's needed alive."

I glanced down at my left thigh, finally noticing the dull pain that was coming from it. Blood was seeping through my cloak. _When did it reopen? _

I was feeling lightheaded from the blood loss, and I was having even more trouble standing.

A girl with blue hair ran into my range of vision. "Botan, I need your communicator to call for a portal." The redhead told her as he moved closer to me. The girl gave him a small round device, while starring at me with guarded curiosity.

"Who did this to Kuwabara?!" Another human with black hair had appeared and was kneeling by the ugly one. He looked over at the redhead, the girl, and I. "What happened here, Kurama?! Why didn't you tell us you were going after them?"

"I will explain everything later. I've made a deal with him." The redhead, whose name had to undoubtedly be 'Kurama', began. "Kuwabara is in bad shape, and we need to get _him_ and his associate medical attention." He pointed to me to stress his point.

"You're bleeding too!" The blue haired girl exclaimed.

'Kurama' opened the small device and said, "Koenma, we need a portal. This case may be solved."

"Really?!" A voice came from the small device. "Well then, hurry up!"

A swirling portal made of blue energy appeared nearby, and I was jostled towards it. _Is my whole plot just going to end here? Is my second chance blown?_

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated_


	8. A Nobody's Decision

_I __am late. I know. I could make excuses, but I won't. Here is the new Chapter. Enjoy._

_I want to thank __The Periwinkle Power Ranger__, __MidnightAbyss__, and my dear Hannakins for reviews. You guys are the reason this story is actually still being written. _

_(Obnoxious AN at bottom, Ignore if you wish.)_

_Yu Yu Hakusho and Kingdom Hearts are not my property._

…

_Chapter Eight_

_A Nobody's Decision_

Marluxia's PoV

As my mind practically began to knock itself against my skull, Kurama lead me through the blue portal.

I had to close my eyes because of the bright light that was on the other side. When my eyes finally adjusted, I saw that we were standing in an oddly colored room, which had painted green walls and pink pillars that held up the sealing. The floor was off-white and tiled. I could see my blood dripping onto it, staining the blue tinted white a disturbing blood red.

"Kurama! What happened?! Who's this?!" A slightly annoying voice rang out loudly. It sounded similar to the voice I had heard come from the small round device that Kurama had used to summon the portal.

"_He_ is a suspect. Yusuke and Botan are bringing Kuwabara and the other suspect back, as well. They _also_ need medical attention." Kurama replied calmly. Much to my embarrassment, I was practically leaning on him. _I can't even stand on my own._

"We need stretchers in here now!" I finally bothered to look in the direction of the voice that kept on giving orders-

-there was a _**toddler**_standing on top of a pink and gold desk…

…_I really am going insane._

Even more unbelievably, two large beings in oddly patterned loincloths dragged in a stretcher. One of them was red skinned while the other was blue. They both had small horns coming out of their foreheads…_My hallucinations are getting even __**better**__. _

They took me from Kurama and unceremoniously plopped me down on the stretcher. The minute my body hit it, I could feel myself give into exhaustion. Only one thought danced across my mind as I drifted away.

_Please, let Larxene be okay. _

Demyx PoV

"Guys, I…I think that the Superior…" I started to say as I looked up at Axel in astonishment. "I think he's in my head."

A dark chuckle echoed through my mind

_This can't be happening._

"W-what?" Axel managed to sputter out.

"How is that possible?" Roxas asked, trying his best to compose himself.

"That dream I had last night…he was there. I heard a knock at the door and couldn't stop myself from opening it. He was there…" I repeated again, remembering how he had told me that I'd almost found my heart. _What did that mean?_

"_It is slowly returning..." _The Superior's voice rang through my head.

"How?" I found myself asking aloud.

There was silence in my head for a few long moments.

"…_I do not know. Number Four would…"_

"Yes, how is that possible? He couldn't have been able to get here as just a consciousness, right?!" Roxas replied, thinking that I had been talking to him in response to his earlier question.

"Didn't _his_ Heartless manage to possess…" Axel trailed off, horrified by the possibility.

The Superior gave no reply to that.

I was completely scared. I couldn't possibly figure any of this out.

One thought just continued its cycle through my mind.

_This can't be happening. _

Suddenly, the cabin door burst open. It had been practically knocked off its hinges. _Yusuke_ was standing behind it. He was holding up his hand, which was formed into a "fake gun". The "gun" didn't seem very fake because there was a small concentration of blue energy focused at his finger point.

"If you move, I'll shoot and there'll be nothin' left of you." His voice was dangerously serious.

Roxas immediately tried to summon a portal so we could get away, but a black blur came flying in past Yusuke.

Roxas was frozen in place, his hand raised to summon a portal. Standing next to him was a guy who was shorter than he was, with hair that was insane. He was holding a long thin sword, and it was pressed against Roxas's neck.

"Haven't you people figured out that it wasn't us?!" Axel asked, completely annoyed.

"…_Things are certainly becoming interesting quickly."_

"We'll figure things out later." Yusuke replied, using his free hand to grab something out of his pocket. It was a small round device that he started talking to the minute he popped it open. "We need a portal, Koenma. Three down, two to go."

That means that they're going to go after Zexion and Xigbar next_. I guess it was a good thing Zexion didn't travel with us after all._

A blue portal appeared in the middle of the small cabin, swirling around counter clockwise.

We were forced to go through, Yusuke keeping his charged "gun" trailed on us.

The new, small guy pushed Roxas through while following behind. Yusuke told Axel and I to go next. Axel was getting really annoyed again, and since I didn't want to be in anymore trouble I coaxed him through.

"If we want to get out of this okay, we should cooperate."

"But-" He began, practically glowering me.

"Hurry up." Yusuke commanded, motioning with his "gun" to make his point.

Axel reluctantly stepped through.

"_Ever cooperative…" _The Superior commented.

I shuttered. Maybe I should avoid going to Spirit World with _him _around.

Another chuckle resounded through my mind, "_Number XII is a much greater concern than I am_."

"Marluxia's here?!" I exclaimed out loud. I covered my mouth with my hand when I realized that I'd spoken aloud and ran straight through the portal. _So embarrassing. _

I stopped abruptly and pulled my hand away from my face. I was standing in a dreary room that didn't appear to have any windows.

My attention was immediately drawn to none other than Marluxia, sprawled out on a plain steel bench that was attached to the wall. His eyes were shut and his skin was really pale. He looked like he was practically dead. He was lying on his cloak, and his chest would have been bare if it weren't for all of the blood stained bandages.

_What happened to him? _

"Well, look who it is." Axel said in a dangerous voice. "Maybe we should finish him off now; it might save us the trouble later."

Roxas looked at Marluxia with guarded interest and replied, "That's probably what _they_ want. Why else would they throw us all into the same room?"

"Always trying to one up The Man, aren't you?" Axel joked, his mood lightening somewhat.

"Now isn't the time for idiocy." Roxas snapped back irritably, batting away a hand that had been ready to ruffle his hair. "Demyx," He turned his intense blue eyes on me. "You need to tell us if the Superior tries to do anything. We need to be ready to hold you down if things get serious."

I gulped. Axel visibly stiffened. Though Roxas was probably right, sometimes he could be a bit too blunt.

An uncertain silence settled between us and was only broken by a soft grown coming from Marluxia's direction.

"Heh. Look who's awake."

Zexion's PoV

I awoke to some rather distinct laughter. I shot up in an instant, quickly scanning my surroundings. The campsite was as bare and as dismal as it had been previously, except now it was brightened by a much stronger indigo light. The fire was completely burned out, and nothing but grey ashes lay in its wake. I heard another bout of laughter.

I didn't find Xigbar until I looked up. He was standing on top of the rock face we had set up our camp near. He had his guns poised and occasionally shot at an enemy I couldn't see. He was laughing a little psychotically and seemed to be having the time of his life.

"W-what's going on?!" I asked rather ineloquently, my voice raspy from sleep.

"Hey there, sleepy head. Did I wake ya up?" Xigbar asked over his shoulder. He continued to shoot. "Haha! Take that you slimy green things!!"

I got up and dared to peak over the rock at what Xigbar was tormenting. There were a bunch of eccentric looking creatures that had a slightly human anatomy but were otherwise very odd. They were similar to the creatures I had come in contact with in Spirit World, except shorter and uglier. Quite a few of them had olive skin and looked fairly slimy, so Xigbar's previous comment was certainly called for.

"What are they?!" I demanded once again in a very ineloquent tone.

"Demons. I think they might be bandits." Xigbar once again said over his shoulder.

"Retreat!!" Said one of the taller and uglier demons. Whatever was left of the bandits' dwindling forces ran away from our camp as hastily as they could. Xigbar laughed again and lazily shot at them, not really trying to hit them, just trying to scare them witless.

When the demons were out of his range, Xigbar turned around and jumped down. "Sorry 'bout wakin' ya up. But they were trying to do some…really…_strange_ things to you when I woke up…"

"What?!" I asked incredulously. I really was acting like some sort of illiterate imbecile this morning.

Xigbar gave me an enigmatic smile, his yellow eyes glinting mischievously. "Never mind. What matters is, is that you're all right and those things are gone. We should probably get goin'. We're nearby a demon settlement, and we can probably get some grub there. I'd like to have a snack before we go, but there's not really much here." He swept his arm outward, as if showing off something grand, to stress the point that everything around us was barren and dead.

"How do you know there's a demon settlement nearby?" I asked, much more akin to my usual tone of voice.

Xigbar still had that damned smile on his face. "Let's ask questions once we're on the road, eh? Ya might wanna fix yourself up before you get into any _deep _thought. Isn't that hairstyle of yours some sorta secret to your _vast_ intelligence?" He ruffled my hair, and laughed when I smacked his hand away irritably. I glared at him.

That's when I realized I was looking at him with _both_ eyes. The thick covering of hair that usually graced my right eye was gone. _I must look ridiculous! _I hastily turned away from him and did my best to fix my hair. I was rewarded with more of Xigbar's snarky laughter.

After there was a good amount of hair haphazardly finger brushed over my right eye, I picked up my cloak from the ground. It was quite filthy and the air was still sweltering, so I decided I would carry it. _Demyx and his _friends _weren't wearing their cloaks earlier, but they appeared rather cold. It will be a good idea to hold onto mine, just incase. _

"Ready to go, kid?"

_I really wish he would stop referring to me as 'kid'. _"Yes. Now answer my earlier question." I replied in a very serious tone.

Xigbar chuckled. "I told ya already that this is where I woke up. I made sure I knew the area pretty well before I left. The demons around here aren't too bright, but they know how to respect power. I got a lot good stuff from just summonin' my guns." Xigbar began as he turned in a direction that I could only guess was west.

"That means you're no better than those bandits."

I couldn't believe what I had just said. Was receiving a heart really this strange? I was actually growing _fearful_.

_I don't want to become a completely different person. _

Xigbar gave me an interested glance. "You're really a _little sweetie_ when you decide to get emotional. Soundin' just like the _keyblade master_." A cat-like grin spread over his face.

"Shut up!" I snapped at him, feelings of anger quickly replacing my earlier ones.

I was rewarded with yet another laugh. "Anyway, it'd be best if you layed low while I gather some grub. Summonin' a _Lexicon_ isn't really gonna help much."

"Whatever." I grumbled dismissively. "I'm not entirely certain if I'm interested in trying any _demon _cuisine." I added after a couple moments of silence.

"It's not as bad as ya think." Xigbar replied.

I could see the outline of a small town in the distance. The buildings were grotesque and shaped oddly. Nothing in this world was pleasant in the least bit.

…

Just as instructed, I "layed low" while Xigbar entered the small demon settlement. The cries of fear that had ensued afterwards left a bitter taste in my mouth. _Your heart must be connected with your conscience._ It's strange. The conscience always seemed like a mental process, but I suppose without a heart there really isn't much to guide it.

When Xigbar was done with his shameless plundering, the two of us went far outside of town. We settled down to eat nearby a very large but decrepit tree. It was dying; unlike everything else we'd come upon, which had already died long ago. It gave the impression that this world had once been alive.

Surprisingly, the food was pretty decent, but I only ate a miniscule portion. I had never been a very indulgent eater, and my newfound guilt didn't help my appetite.

"Done already?" Xigbar asked, still munching on some sort of drumstick. "It's not_ that_ bad."

"I'm not very hungry." I replied simply.

Xigbar made some sort of dismissive snort as he finished off the drumstick. "Well, now that we've gotten something in our stomachs, we need to decide what we're gonna do. Marluxia's plotting something. The blunderin' trio wants to achieve world peace. I wouldn't usually get involved with any of this, but as ya already know Marluxia has most of the items I want. And he seems to have an interest in ya, for whatever _sinister_ reasons he may have-"

"You want me to help you defeat Marluxia." I cut into Xigbar's recap.

Xigbar chuckled. "I knew fixin' your hair would get ya all sharp and stuff." I shot a dark glare his way. "I think it would be in both of our best interests to work together. When we bring down Marluxia, I'll have my items, and ya won't have to sleep with one eye open anymore." He tilted his head slightly, eyes inquiring on my decision.

"I'll help you." I replied after several moments of silence. "_But_, only if you tell me what you want those artifacts for. If we're already regaining our hearts, then what's the point?"

"Well, if Kingdom Hearts was Xemnas's obsession, then these artifacts are mine." Xigbar replied. "I've always been fascinated by those old legends, and look around us. They're true." He laughed again, except this time it was much lighter. Xigbar seemed younger for some reason.

He shook his head. "Anyway, what I really want is to go back home, but I'm afraid that'll lose my heart again if I try to leave these worlds. So, I thought that maybe all those crazy artifacts might help me get back and still have my heart. Pretty dumb, eh?"

"No." I assured him, a small _smile_ on my face. _What is wrong with me? I don't _smile. _I don't care if I'm getting my heart back or not. I'm not turning into some sentimental idiot. _"It's not dumb. I think it's a little ironic that you want to go back _home_ after you've dreamt about being here for so long. But, what I want to know, is why these artifacts are going to help you get back?" I shoved my own condescending thoughts away in order to finish my sentence.

"They're originally from our scatted world. They were supposedly sealed here to keep them from being used by the wrong people for the wrong reasons." Xigbar said, his purposeful accent completely gone. _I don't think I've ever seen him this serious for so long. _

I didn't reply as my mind began to whirl with musing about what all the artifacts were capable of, and why each one was sealed in these worlds.

A while later, the two of us packed away leftover food that wasn't perishable into a couple little cloth sacks. Xigbar stood up with his load.

"Where are we going to now?" I asked, still seated.

"Human World. It's where Marluxia went. I don't wanna wait until he comes to find me and ask if I'm gonna play his game or not. The element of surprise is always good to have on your side, anyway." Xigbar replied with a lazy wave of his hand.

_I'm not even going to ask how he knows where Marluxia went._

Xigbar walked a couple feet away from where we had eaten and then opened a portal. He turned around to face me and impatiently asked, "Ya comin' or not?!"

I stood up and walked over to him. I entered the portal first, Xigbar following behind.

Marluxia's PoV

"Heh. Look who's awake."

A voice that I recognized as _Axel's_ invaded my still foggy mind. My eyes flew open in an instant, and I tried to sit up but to no avail. Severe pain shot through my right shoulder, causing me to flop painfully back down on the hard surface I had been sleeping on. My eyes shut again as a result of the pain. Despite the unbridled _rage_ that coursed through me at the thought of Axel, my mind wandered to Larxene. _Is she alright? Did they let her go free?_

"W-what happened to you?!" A worried voice that distinctly belonged to Demyx asked me. I was surprised he would care, but then again it was _Demyx_. "When did you arrive at these worlds?" He added another question on, the worry still high in his voice.

"You really think he'll tell us that?" Axel spat. "Like I said, I don't care if it's what _they _want or not. We should finish him off now before he does more damage then Xigbar already has." I heard footsteps lightly tapping on the floor, and I opened my eyes to find Axel walking over to me.

But he stopped. He had raised his hand as if he was ready to summon a chakram, but one never came. "What the hell?!" He exclaimed, fury evident on his face.

Roxas was there, too. I saw him make a definite stance, as if ready to summon his keyblades, but they never came. His face still seemed to be emotionless. "My keyblades aren't heeding me either."

"Who needs a weapon!" Axel snarled, lunging at me, but he was stopped by Demyx.

"You can't!" He yelled, holding the raging redhead back. "I'm tired of seeing everyone die! We don't have to work together, or even help each other, but we should at least not kill each other!"

Axel was completely gone, and he was about to break free until Roxas intervened. Roxas knocked him on the back of his neck, and Axel went limb and would have tumbled to the floor if Demyx hadn't caught him.

"Idiot." I heard Roxas mutter as he glowered down at Axel. "He's completely impossible."

Demyx picked Axel up and put him on one of the metal ledges, not without a little difficulty. Roxas walked over to the other side of the room and out of my vision range.

Demyx turned around. He still looked hopeful I would answer.

_Maybe I will. _

"I was attacked by a strange human known as Kurama." Demyx's eyes widened considerably. "He obviously won. Larxene was hurt badly as well-."

"L-larxene's here, too?!" Fear was written all over his face. I almost laughed. I had forgotten how much she had intimated certain members, especially Demyx.

"Yes." I replied simply.

Demyx came to my side and looked quite pale. "I-ah-y-you're bleeding!" He stuttered, obviously freaking out.

As Demyx had pointed out, the wound on my right shoulder had opened again and was starting to bleed through the already stained bandages. _I'm surprised they even bothered, though I suppose they need me alive in order to gather information. _"It might be better if you let Axel eliminate me."

"W-what?! No!" Demyx exclaimed. He appeared to actually be _angry_ with me.

"We have finally been _allowed_ to be our own person with hearts that are completely ours." Roxas spoke up. "_No one _should be allowed to take that away, _ever_." His tone was scathing.

He walked into my line of vision again and came to stand next to Demyx. "Now continue with your story before any _idiots_ can bother us." He glowered down at me.

I had had very little contact with the keyblade master's nobody, but from the amount of pure rage that radiated off of him I could see why he and Axel had become close.

"Larxene was badly injured and I…" I trailed off, remembering that strange moment of indecision. "I _bartered _with the humans for her life. I told them to take me away instead and save her."

Roxas seemed a little less aggravated now, as one of his blond eyebrows raised in disbelief. Demyx just stared at me with his mouth open. _Maybe telling them was a bad idea after all. I doubt they'll even believe me. _

Suddenly, a loud clanking noise sounded on the other side of the room. Roxas immediately turned around and was in a fighting stance, though he couldn't summon his keyblades. Demyx looked totally scared witless and turned around slowly.

A bright light shone from where the noise had come from, and it appeared to be shaped like a doorway. It was hard to make out if there was anyone coming in until the door closed, cutting of the light. Three figures stood in front of us. I could only make out the one in the middle, but the two next to him seemed very tall and not human. I tried to sense what kind of energy they had, but I couldn't sense anything at all. It was as if all the energy in the room had been extinguished or absorbed somehow. _Probably why no one can summon any weapons._

"You all have been causing a lot of chaos around here, and we know that there are more of you out there somewhere. I've come to get answers. _Especially,_ from the thief." The one in the middle, who had shaggy brown hair and was wearing some very strange clothes, was glaring right at me from between Roxas and Demyx.

He seemed familiar. I recognized his voice…_The toddler?! But that's impossible. _

"What?" Demyx managed to squeak out. Just what was he thinking?

The two very large beings next to the brunette moved a little closer. They probably had very intimidating expressions on their faces because Demyx backed away.

"You have been misinformed." Roxas spoke up with complete confidence. I could hear the usual trace of annoyance in his tone. "_The thief_ is not in this cell. We have done no wrong-"

The brunette laughed, though it was humorless. "It's always a different story with each of you. I don't know what you people are, but you certainly seem to like lying. Bill, John."

The two large beings moved quicker than I thought they would have been able to. They grabbed Roxas and Demyx and threw them aside. Roxas caught himself, but Demyx knocked into a stone bench.

The brunette stepped forward. He was looking down his nose at me, quite literally. "You said you would tell us where all of the items are. We have the girl in a separate room. I suggest you get talking." His tone left no room for complaints.

_You're such a fool._ I told myself mentally, a sad smile and ironic smile creeping onto my face.

"Each one of the eight we found is hidden in a different location…" I began as all my dreams slipped away.

…

_Long AN, won't happen again:_

Okay. (No spoilers)

Let's have words on the new Kingdom Hearts game 358/2 Days. This game made me want to hate the cannon versions of two characters in this story that I love. Demyx & Roxas

The game basically showed that cannon Demyx is selfish and lazy. And a liar. I suppose since Org. XIII are bad guys they're not supposed to be endearing btw. I REALLY don't like cannon Demyx right now. I know he's not the best fighter but his water sure makes great defense and someone could really use that while your comrade is getting his ass wailed on by oversized dog heartless. But no. Demyx would rather nap. AND he manipulates Roxas so he can do it, multiple times. _Seriously._** Screw that.**

Cannon Roxas is officially the **blandest character **on the face of the Earth. He has about 15 minutes of awesome throughout the whole series, counting both the new game and KHII. When DiZ said that he was going to give Roxas a new personality, he was bullshiting us because the Roxas in Twilight Town is the **same** Roxas you play as for about **356 days** of the new game. He only had dual wield keyblades for all of **one battle** (though this is explained in game, it's still no fun). The angry, dual wielding, _**badass**_Roxas barely exists in cannon (oh God. puns, they burn). When Axel said blank with a capital B, he really meant **Bland.**

The way these two characters are portrayed in this story is how I thought their personalities generally were. Guess I was wrong.

Anyway. Give me your opinions if you've played this game. I want to know what my readers think. :D Give me your opinions on my opinions. Whatever. _Just review or PM._

(Give me opinions on the chapter, too, I suppose)


	9. A Nobody's Tale

_Finally, we get into the real plot of this story. Certainly took me long enough. _

_This chapter was __**really**__ fun to write. I tried my best to pinpoint the random locations, sorry if they are weird. I am so glad I finally got to have the trio and Kurama explain everything to one another. Enjoy._

_I would like to thank __The Periwinkle Power Ranger__, __SexyZexy__, and MidnightAbyss for reviewing._

_Yu Yu Hakusho and Kingdom Hearts are not my property. _

…

_Chapter Nine_

_A Nobody's Tale_

Marluxia's PoV

"Each one of the eight we found is hidden in a different location. Places where, even in this distant world, their power will be at their strongest."

"_This distant world_? Do you mean they've been kept in Spirit World all this time?" The brunette asked incredulously.

I gave him a dry chuckle, though it hurt to do so. "No. I didn't agree to tell you where we came from. I just agreed to tell you about the items. I'm sure the musician you people kindly knocked aside would be happy to fill you in on that." I raised my left arm lazily to point to where Demyx was sitting on the ground, staring at the exchange with wide eyes.

The brunette was silent for a little while, as if thinking. "Fine. Tell us the locations. You better not lie!"

The expression he held now was reminiscent of how the Keyblade Master had looked at me a couple of times. I resisted the urge to laugh outright. _Just who is this idiot? _

"The two keys are hidden on opposite sides of the human world." Larxene and I had done little research on where each item should be placed. We had almost sort of _known_. If that made any sense. "The silver one is hidden in a place known as Hawaii, on the small island of Niihau. It is located on Nii beach. It shouldn't be _too hard_ to find. The gold key is hidden in the boat pit of the Great Pyramid-"

"H-how could you possibly have figured out where these items should have been placed?" The brunette asked in complete amazement.

"Someone like_ you_ wouldn't understand." I found myself saying. Rather darkly, might I add.

The brunette appeared to still be thinking, so a short silence began. The air was tense.

I suddenly noticed my vision beginning to darken. _What's going on? _I thought lazily.I peered down at where my wound had decided to open up again. There was a fairly steady flow now, and most of my chest and right side were covered in fresh blood. I wasn't very surprised that the brunette hadn't seemed to care. As long as they got the information, I was of little importance.

"…Are you listening?" The brunette voice cut into my hazy reverie. He sounded annoyed. I tried to focus on his face, but I couldn't. I heard him sigh. "I thought I told you idiots to take care of him!"

_If I can't tell them any more information, they'll go after Larxene!_

I reached out my left hand and grabbed the soft material of the brunette's clothing. "The eye. You can use it to find the other artifacts." I managed to say it quite clearly. "It's hidden on the northwest tower of Angkor Wat."

I let go and let my hand go limp. My consciousness was spinning. I could barely make a coherent thought.

Demyx PoV

The guy who had ordered us to be arrested only yesterday had come in with two huge green thugs. I could only guess that he was the Koenma we had been trying to seek out. The thugs had knocked me and Roxas aside like we weighed nothing. My back still hurt from where I had knocked into one of the steel ledges. _That's going to leave a bruise. _Axel was still lying on the bench a couple feet away from me.

Koenma was currently interrogating Marluxia, who didn't look too good. Blood was slowly spreading from a wound that looked like it was somewhere on his right shoulder.

I had been surprised to find out two of the items were keys. I had a sinking feeling they might have to do with the Keyblade, and I didn't want to get involved with anything like that. That thing was dangerous, and it hurt like heck.

Koenma seemed to be trying to get Marluxia's attention, but when he didn't respond, he noticed Marluxia's condition. Koenma sighed angrily and turned around to face the two thugs. "I thought I told you idiots to take care of him!"

Marluxia grabbed the blue thingy Koenma was wearing, and was looking up at him like he was going to have an epiphany. "The eye." He gasped out. _What the heck? _"You can use it to find the other artifacts. It's hidden on the northwest tower of Angkor Wat."

So, I guess one of the artifacts was an eye. _Talk about a random collection of crap._

Marluxia's hand went limp, and appeared as if he had passed out from blood loss. Before Koenma could say anything, the loud noise the cell door made when it opened filled the room.

"How could you treat them this way! One of them is badly injured, and you put _dirty bandages _on him and throw him in a cell!" A voice that sounded a lot like Yukina's exclaimed.

"W-wait! My love, you can't go in there!" Kuwabara's came after hers.

The door shut again and after my eyes had gotten used to the changes in light, I saw Yukina standing in front of Koenma with a very determined expression on her face. Kuwabara was behind her, though he was barely standing. He was covered in all assortments of bandages and was leaning on the cell wall for support. He looked like he might have been in worse shape than Marluxia and shouldn't even be out of bed.

Yukina turned to face Kuwabara. "I told you stay in bed. You're going to open your wounds again!" She scolded him. Her confident doctor side seemed very annoyed right now.

"B-but my love, there are dangerous criminals in here and-"

"Dangerous criminals! There are_ people_ in here who are being horribly mistreated!" She almost yelled at him as she turned around in fury of blue robes.

"Y-yukina, I really need to get all the artifacts back before my father-" Koenma looked genuinely afraid, and I noticed for the first time that his binky wasn't in his mouth. _I guess it's hard to interrogate someone with something like that in your mouth_.

Yukina had already pushed past him and was looking over Marluxia with a worried and slightly calculating expression on her face. The two huge thugs didn't even try to stop her. One of them actually came up to her and asked, "What can I do to help, Miss?"

I wanted to laugh at how quickly Koenma had lost control of the situation.

"We need to get him into a bed and wash his wounds. Then I'll be able to start the healing process. We also need to give him more blood; it looks like he's lost a lot." She told the thug as he picked Marluxia up easily.

"Yukina!" Koenma exclaimed. "Bill! You guys can't just-"

"I can, and I will." Yukina said in tone that meant no arguments. She sure was scary if you came between her and helping someone. "Could you please take Kazuma back to his bed?" She asked in a much kinder tone to the other thug.

"My love! I can't leave ya! It's too dangerous-" Kuwabara was cut off as he was picked up by the other thug.

The door to the cell was opening again and a protesting Kuwabara and an unconscious Marluxia were taken out.

Before the door closed, Yukina looked around the cell, and appeared to be noticing Roxas, Axel, and me for the first time. "What happened to Axel?" she asked as she rushed to his side.

"The idiot was in a rage and trying to kill the other idiot with the pink hair." Roxas said as he made his way over to her. Koenma was comically sputtering and reaching out to where the two of them stood, as if in shock that we weren't trying to attack her or him. "So, I knocked him out. He'll be fine. Demyx took a blow from when the guards entered."

Yukina had immediately laid her gaze on me and had hurried over. _Thanks a lot Roxas. _I thought sarcastically as I stood up as quickly as I could. "I'm fine. Really!" I smiled down at her and put my hand behind my head. The bruise on my back did hurt, but it wasn't even close to the condition Marluxia had been in. "You really should just go take care of your other patients! Especially Marluxia."

"So, that's his name." Yukina replied. "T-thank you. I really should go do that." She had calmed down again and was more like the soft spoken Yukina that we had first met.

She turned to Koenma. "You should put these three in more humane quarters." She had come back as confident as ever. "I can promise you that none of them had anything to do with the crimes committed against Spirit World."

Though Yukina didn't know for sure, I was happy she seemed to really believe in us. We had met so briefly, yet she still cared.

Koenma sighed; it was more tired than angry. "Fine. But the red haired one, you said he was in a rage. Shouldn't he be restrained before he wakes up?"

"I am perfectly capable of taking care of this idiot myself." Roxas replied viciously.

"Alright. Alright." Koenma turned to leave. "I'll be right back." He said as he entered into the brightly lit hallway.

"Ma'am?" A small woman with black hair suddenly walked into the cell. "We are ready to begin the healing process."

"I have to go." Yukina said. "I'll take care of your friend." With that, she and the woman left.

The door to cell closed once again with a loud _clank_.

"He's not any _friend_ of ours." Axel suddenly spat.

Roxas and I turned to look down at him. He was smirking up at us and winked. "You don't think that soft little whack would have knocked me out for so long?" He asked with a laugh.

Roxas glowered at him. He looked like he was about ready to knock Axel out again.

"Hey, hey. Calm down. Calm down." Axel said as he sat up and put his arms out in defeat. "You can't take a joke anymore, Roxas?" He tilted his head to the side and smiled.

"Now isn't the time for jokes. Yukina got us out of a lot trouble, but we're still probably going to have to deal with a lot of questions. On top of that we have the Superior to worry about."

I had actually forgotten about him for awhile. I hadn't heard any of his remarks…

"…_I am still present. If you want me to speak more then I am perfectly capable." _

_No. No. T-that's alright. N-not that I mind. I-I mean…_

I could hear him laugh at my stuttering, but he said no more.

"…don't know what he wants. He could be after the artifacts as well." Roxas had continued speaking through my conversation.

The door to the cell opened again. Koenma walked in with another thug and Yusuke.

"Sorry 'bout the baby and his antics." Yusuke was the first to speak.

"You're against me, too?" Koenma exclaimed.

"I always was." Yusuke replied with a smirk. "Kurama is the one that wants to ask ya everythin'. We might as well let him, since the baby don't know what he's doin'."

Koenma crossed his arms and appeared to be seething.

"Well, come on." Yusuke had already walked into the brightly lit hallway.

The three of us followed them into the wide hallway. It had pink walls and bluish white tile. _What a weird décor. I guess Spirit World is kind of odd. I wonder if it's anything like Wonderland. Didn't Xigbar say something about a giant throat? _

The hallway ended, and we came into an area that reminded me of a hospital. There were beds everywhere, though there weren't any of the normal machines you'd expect to see in a hospital.

Yusuke led us past a bunch of beds. Almost all of them were empty, except for two. One had a still unconscious Marluxia lying in it. He was receiving some sort of healing from Yukina, since her hands were glowing with the same blue energy as when she had miraculously cured Axel's cold.

The other had Kuwabara lying in it. When we walked past he asked, "What's goin' on Urameshi? Why're these freaks getting' let outta their cell! Their energy still don't feel right!"

Yusuke stopped to answer him. "Shut up! Kurama says they're not as much as a threat as we thought. Yukina seems to think they're alright, too."

Yusuke's reply got Kuwabara to stop asking questions, instead he got what I think is a thoughtful expression. He really just looked like he was in pain.

We continued past a few more beds until we ran into Kurama. It looked like he had just gotten up, his long red hair was kind of disheveled, and his bed wasn't made. His clothing looked like it had been put on in a hurry.

"What are you doing out of bed already?" Yusuke asked, going over to Kurama's side. "Doesn't Yukina want you to lie down still? Even if your wound is healed, don't you need to rest for a day or two?"

Kurama gave Yusuke a small smile. "I was planning on going to go see them myself, but it looks like you've brought them to me. Yukina would be very unhappy with me if she saw me out of bed." He set his green gaze on us. "Please, everyone sit down and make yourselves comfortable."

We did just that. Koenma sat on the bed right of Kurama's. Axel, Roxas, and I all sat on the bed to his left. Yusuke, and the thug who was a couple feet away, remained standing.

Kurama sat down on his bed, facing the three of us. "This certainly has been a fiasco. When we first met you three, we were cautious because you're spiritual energy is neither human nor demon. Not only that, but it just doesn't _feel right_. It's almost as if you're spiritual energy shouldn't exist or even be possible."

The three of us shared a look. Roxas looked absolutely livid at Kurama's statement, and Axel just looked very, very sad.

Kurama noticed this, and I think he took a mental note. He continued on, though. "But Yukina seemed to have taken a liking to you three. She is an excellent judge of character. So, we decided that it would be alright for you to stay in the temple. It_ is_ a safe haven, after all. But when Koenma claimed that a strange being with your energy had committed multiple crimes against Spirit World, we had to act. We have had close contact with seven of your kind since yesterday." Kurama paused, as if to gather his thoughts or let us gather ours.

"_In the end, only seven could make it to the next life. And look at me, barely even hanging on to an existence…" _

The Superior's voice was distant and really sad sounding. I felt like I needed to comfort him or something, but I didn't know what to say.

"The first encounter was with you three. Then, Yusuke and Kuwabara had a short battle with another one. He had navy purple hair that was covering the right side of his face, and he wore a similar cloak to the ones you three left at the temple when you fled-"

"That was Zexion!" I cut in. "Where is he now?" I asked quickly. _They must have fought right after we had spoken to him! If only we could have persuaded him to come with us. Zexion's abilities are even more defensive than mine, so he was one of the weakest fighters. I hope he's alright. _

Kurama gave me a small smile, as if he could hear all of my concerned thoughts about Zexion. "He was defeated and taken into custody. He was going to be questioned, but he was broken out before Jack could make any progress. Many ogres and guards died. The one who broke _Zexion_ out had a similar physique to the thief who stole the first item and caused the ruckus in the first place."

That was probably Xigbar. _So, the two of them ended up meeting._ One problem with that was that now Koenma and everyone else thought Zexion had something to do with the thefts.

"The one who broke out Zexion was Xigbar, and he_ is_ the one who started it all." Axel spoke up. "We_ really_ have nothing to do with this…" He trailed off, looking annoyed.

"Why does Marluxia know where all of the artifacts are hidden? Is he helping Xigbar?" Roxas wondered out loud.

"Marluxia?" Kurama asked.

"The pink haired fruit loop that kills things with roses." Axel answered rudely. "No offense to you." He added, probably remembering the rose Kurama had turned into a whip the first time we'd been accused.

"None taken." Kurama smiled. "Well, after Zexion was broken out, another one of your kind took advantage of the chaos. The artifacts had all been placed in different areas, which is probably why the first thief only stole one. This next one was much more resourceful, and stole the remaining eight items. They wore the same cloak you all seem to have, but their build was very small and lithe. The girl who is recovering in her own separate room, and is a companion of _Marluxia_ was probably the second culprit."

Axel spoke up again, his irritation obviously growing. "Her name's Larxene. I really think it would be a good idea if you put that psycho in a straightjacket-"

"Now that you know who is responsible, will you let us go and live in peace?" Roxas cut Axel off, his intense blue gaze piercing Koenma in particular.

Koenma visibly recoiled. Roxas could be really unnerving when he wanted to be. "Well, um, there's…" Koenma seemed much meeker than earlier. Obviously the humiliation of having everything completely out of his control had gotten to him.

"_What a weak fool…" _the Superior commented from the back of my mind. I could practically see him giving Koenma his best disgusted look.

Kurama spoke for Koenma instead. "There are a couple more things. The most mysterious aspects of all of you; are where you came from and what you are."

The three of us stiffened at the same time. A tense silence fell.

_What are we suppose to say? _"Hi, we're from another dimension and aren't even supposed to exist. We ended up here because we were systematically killed for causing mass destruction to the worlds on the pretense of becoming whole again." _Yeah. That would really go over well._

"We were originally humans." Roxas spoke up. "What makes us different is that our hearts are only fragments of a whole one. Our emotions are practically nonexistent, or so_ they_ say." He bitterly spat the last part.

"Where we come from, a lot people claimed we didn't have any hearts at all. They claimed we shouldn't even exist…" I added on, but trailing of at the harsh truth.

"So," Axel began darkly. "They decided to use some of us for _the worlds' benefit_ and destroy any others that were in their way."

_I have a feeling Axel may never forgive DiZ for what he did to Roxas, especially now that Roxas is here with us. _

Kurama looked saddened by what we had to say. Yusuke only had a hard and unreadable expression on his face. Koenma looked like he was thinking about something.

"But some of us have been reborn _here_, and I think we may even…be getting our human hearts back." It felt freeing to say it out loud like that. As I said it, I _felt real human emotion_ bubbling up inside of me. It was amazing.

A silence fell on us again, and lasted for a couple of minutes.

"That still doesn't explain where the seven of you came from." Koenma commented.

"We don't really know how to explain it. We're from a scattered and darkness filled world, where hope is hard to come by." I answered, thinking the cliché _alternate dimension _crap would sound a little stupid.

"The separate pieces have become their own worlds, and people live mundane, boring lives on them. Some dream of breaking free and are punished for it." Roxas added.

Axel gave a humorless laugh. "We're making it sound like hell. But in some ways it was."

"…that's why this place seems like paradise, to us." I added on, earning kind and understanding glances from my two friends.

Zexion's PoV

Xigbar and I stepped out into another snow covered area. It had the total appearance of being a park, especially because of the tall skyscrapers that could be seen over the tree line. There was a haphazardly shoveled, concrete walkway meandering through the park. There were snow covered, wooden benches here and there, and quite a few ornate lamps following the sidewalk.

Xigbar had an expression of extreme concentration, yet he looked rather comical. "Larxene told me that she had stolen the rest of the items, but I didn't sense any other forms of energy on either her or Marluxia." Xigbar said after observing the area we'd come to. From his tone of voice, I could tell he was very serious.

"Are you implying that some _inanimate_ objects have their own type of energy?" I asked incredulously.

Xigbar smiled, his yellow eye glinting, yet again. "That's what's so interesting about them! They're all like smaller forms of things that are common in our universe. Like this Heartless Amulet." He pulled a pendent the size of his hand out of his cloak. It was an almost exact copy of the Heartless symbol, except for a very curious silver eye in its center. "It can wrench out someone's heart, much like the Heartless can." Xigbar's expressive hands made the motion of ripping a heart out.

"But I know one thing for sure," He could rant about the artifacts almost as well as our Superior had about Kingdom Hearts. I felt yet another small smile appear on my lips. "There is at least one more amulet. The Nobody Amulet. And since Heartless and Nobodies are like two sides of one coin, I should be able to use this amulet to find the other."

With that Xigbar held the Heartless Amulet up to his face. It began to glow with the unmistakable purple hue of darkness. Its silver eye glowed with a deep red, and then Xigbar cried out. I ran over to his side, just as he landed on the snowy ground, dropping the amulet as well. Where the amulet landed, steam rose, and soon the dead grass underneath the snow was uncovered.

"Are you alright?" I asked Xigbar, while tapping the side of his face to see if I could get him to wake up.

"I'm fine!" He exclaimed as his yellow eye opened. "I know where the other amulet is!" He sprang to his feet with the energy of a child and quickly grabbed the Heartless Amulet, only to drop it again. "Still hot." He commented, a wide grin on his face.

_He certainly is enthusiastic about this. _

Xigbar opened a dark portal. "I wonder why it would be in a place like that…" I heard him mumble to himself.

He suddenly turned around and began to pile a large amount of snow on top of the amulet.

"What on earth are you doing?" _Am I only going to utter questions? _

"Coolin' it off, of course! We don't have all day! There's definitely something goin' on. The Nobody Amulet is halfway around the world near some sorta monument. Why the heck would it be there? Marluxia's up to something."

_He really is ranting…_

Xigbar pulled the amulet from the snow and threw it around his neck. It was obviously cool enough to wear.

"Let's go. We might be able to figure out more if we get another artifact." Xigbar told me as he hurried through the dark portal.

I sighed. Xigbar was turning out to be a handful.

I walked though the portal, and much to my surprise, we were standing on what appeared to be an island in the middle of a harbor. The air was significantly warmer than where we had been previously. We were still in a park-like setting, and on the shores of the harbor there were towering skyscrapers.

Unlike the deserted park, there were humans walking to and fro on the long sidewalk, and some of them had turned to look at us. Some were pointing at us, and I noticed they were speaking a language I couldn't understand. Two tall men wearing blue uniforms took notice of us. One was mounted on an auburn horse. The one on foot was heading toward us, a stern expression on his face.

I turned and saw Xigbar looking around the bases of the trees, muttering to himself. I could see that the fact that we wore matching black cloaks and had such eccentric appearances was making us stand out. On top of that, Xigbar's behavior was bordering on insane.

The man in the blue uniform was standing in front of me and speaking to me. He peered around me at Xigbar, probably commenting on the fact that there was a lunatic with me. More humans had stopped to watch.

_How am I going to get myself out of this? _

I suddenly summoned my Lexicon. I touched the pages and both the man in the blue uniform and the small crowd gasped. I knew that they could see neither me nor Xigbar, now that I had put up such a powerful illusion of our absence. It wouldn't last long, though. I could already feel my power draining.

"We need to hurry. If you haven't noticed, we've gathered a crowd." I griped at Xigbar, watching as he stood up.

"I found it!" He exclaimed, holding up another amulet the size of his palm. It was very much like the Nobody symbol, except it had a gold eye in its center. _That eye. I think I've seen it before, and not on the Heartless Amulet. Somewhere else… _

"Watch out!" Xigbar exclaimed.

I moved just before the man in the blue uniform could walk into me. His companion had dismounted and the two of them were speaking to each other while looking around the area Xigbar and I were standing in. Some other humans were still watching and one was coming over to where the men in blue stood.

_Not good._

"We need to leave now!" I said as I grabbed Xigbar's arm. I opened a portal on reflex and pulled him through, not listening to his protests.

The two of us stumbled out into a place similar to where I had first arrived. The air was thinner and much colder than the harbor island's had been. The sky was cloudy and a thick layer of snow covered everything.

I let go of Xigbar's arm and glowered at him.

"Didn't know ya were that strong, kid." Xigbar commented, with a pleasant smile on his face. He was back to being flippant; his moment of insanity and obsession had passed. "Sorry 'bout that. But at least I got it." He held up the Nobody Amulet once again.

I sighed. "You're completely incorrigible." I shook my head in defeat.

Xigbar laughed. "Oh, com'on! Don't be like that!" He waved his arms around, as if to try to get me to "lighten up".

He was still holding the Nobody Amulet, and its gold eye caught my attention again. "This eye." I said as I grabbed the amulet. "Do you know why it is on both artifacts? Do you know what it means?"

"I'm not too sure, actually. I think it's on all of 'em. But then again, I don't really know how many of 'em there are. Anyway, it's like the crest that was used to identify who they belonged to, or somethin'. Like, whoever the heck made 'em, had his symbol put on all of them like some sorta trademark." Even though Xigbar was talking about the artifacts, he kept his easy going tone. After seeing how obsessive he could be about them, I was both surprised and impressed by his control.

"And who was this fool that claimed the Jagan as his symbol?" A scathing voice came out from the surrounding dormant trees.

A small demon with fierce crimson eyes and ridiculously spiky onyx hair jumped down from one of the larger trees. But what was most horrific about him, was the third eye on his forehead. I recognized it in an instant. It was the same one on both amulets. As I glanced back at the Nobody Amulet still grasped in Xigbar's hand, I saw the iris of the gold eye begin to gain a taint of purple. The demon pulled a matching purple eye from his pocket. It was the same size as a real eye and was hung on a silver chain.

"A-another one of the artifacts…" Xigbar practically gasped out. His obsession was showing again.

The demon gave a malignant laugh, his sharp canines flashing.

I had a feeling my allusions wouldn't let me escape this time.

…

_Review with any flames, comments, questions, complements, or useless babble. All is appreciated_


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